5/21/2023 0 Comments Aluminum reactivity![]() Making the composite required nothing more than simple manual mixing. "People have struggled to make aluminum nanoparticles, and here we are producing them under normal atmospheric pressure and room temperature conditions." "The gallium separates the nanoparticles and keeps them from aggregating into larger particles," Singaram said. In this gallium-rich composite, the gallium serves both to dissolve the aluminum oxide coating and to separate the aluminum into nanoparticles. Using scanning electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction, the researchers showed the formation of aluminum nanoparticles in a 3:1 gallium-aluminum composite, which they found to be the optimal ratio for hydrogen production. Oliver suggested that the formation of aluminum nanoparticles could account for the increased hydrogen production, and his lab had the equipment needed for nanoscale characterization of the alloy. In fact, the rate of hydrogen production was so unexpectedly high the researchers thought there must be something fundamentally different about this gallium-rich alloy. But Singaram's lab found that hydrogen production increased with a gallium-rich composite. Previous studies had mostly used aluminum-rich mixtures of aluminum and gallium, or in some cases more complex alloys. I thought it would make a good senior thesis for him to measure the hydrogen output from different ratios of gallium and aluminum," Singaram said. ![]() "He wasn't doing it in a scientific way, so I set him up with a graduate student to do a systematic study. Singaram said the study grew out of a conversation he had with a student, coauthor Isai Lopez, who had seen some videos and started experimenting with aluminum-gallium hydrogen generation in his home kitchen. patent application is pending on this technology. The new study, however, includes several innovations and novel findings that could lead to practical applications.Ī U.S. It works because gallium, a liquid at just above room temperature, removes the passive aluminum oxide coating, allowing direct contact of aluminum with water. The reaction of aluminum and gallium with water has been known since the 1970s, and videos of it are easy to find online. ![]() Oliver and Bakthan Singaram, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, are corresponding authors of a paper on the new findings, published February 14 in Applied Nano Materials. I've never seen anything like it," said UCSC Chemistry Professor Scott Oliver. "We don't need any energy input, and it bubbles hydrogen like crazy. The gallium was easily recovered for reuse after the reaction, which yields 90% of the hydrogen that could theoretically be produced from reaction of all the aluminum in the composite. A new study by researchers at UC Santa Cruz shows that an easily produced composite of gallium and aluminum creates aluminum nanoparticles that react rapidly with water at room temperature to yield large amounts of hydrogen. For years, researchers have tried to find efficient and cost-effective ways to use aluminum's reactivity to generate clean hydrogen fuel. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |