Hydrogen is considered the most environmentally friendly and promising type of fuel, including for the space industry. Its main drawback is storage mode. For example, to get liquefied hydrogen, it must be cooled to an extremely low temperature. Now a group of Japanese scientists from the University of Vasade has developed a flexible polymer, from which you can make a plastic container for storing and transporting liquid hydrogen.
The polymer was obtained from an organic matter called Keton also known as fluoren, used to obtain drugs against malaria.
From the obtained polymer, plastic “sheets” can be formed that hold hydrogen through electrolytic hydrogenation (absorption by hydrogen material from a gaseous state) in water at a regular temperature. When heated to +75 ° C in combination with a water Iridiye catalyst, the material releases hydrogen.
The experiments showed that the polymer is safe, easy to process, strongly strong, does not burn and not toxic. This means that plastic containers can be made from it for transporting hydrogen, which can even be worn in your pocket. In the future, fuel tanks for hydrogen cars and various gadgets may appear, as well as gas storages of hydrogen for heating residential buildings.