Conférence : Professeur K.-F. Aguey-Zinsou – 25/3/2015

Storing hydrogen in materials is based on the observation that metals can reversibly absorb hydrogen, however practical application of such a finding is found to be rather challenging especially for vehicular applications. The ideal material
should reversibly store a significant amount of hydrogen under moderate conditions of pressures and temperatures. To date, such a material does not exist, and the high expectations of achieving the scientific discovery of a suitable material
simultaneously with engineering innovations are out of reach. Of course, major breakthroughs have been achieved in the field, but the most promising materials still bind hydrogen too strongly and often suffer from poor hydrogen kinetics and/or lack of reversibility. Clearly, new approaches have to be explored, and the knowledge gained with high-energy ball milling needs to be exploited, i.e. size does matter!
Herein, progress made toward the practical use of hydrides as a hydrogen store and the barriers still remaining are reviewed. In this context, the new approach of tailoring the properties of hydrides through size restriction at the nanoscale is discussed.1 Such an approach already shows great promise in leading to further breakthroughs because both thermodynamics and kinetics can be effectively controlled at molecular levels. The effects of size restriction on the storage properties of magnesium and other complex hydride such as LiBH4 would be discussed3 as well as potential strategies to design practical store based on these nanosized hydrides.

Biography:

Prof. Kondo-François Aguey-Zinsou received a Master in Surface and Interface Sciences in 1997, and completed a PhD in heterogeneous catalysis at the University Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris, France) in 2000.
He carried-out postdoctoral research at The University of Queensland (Australia) in bio-electrochemistry. In 2003, he joined the research centre GKSS in Hamburg (Germany) and worked on the development of advanced materials for hydrogen storage. In 2005, he moved to Queen Mary University London, and later on to University College London (UK) where he supervised research projects on hydrogen storage, biofuel cells, and biomaterials. Since 2009, he has joined the School of Chemical Sciences and Engineering at The University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia). His current research focuses on the physical-chemistry of light metals and their hydrides at the nano-scale.