High-pressure Compound Could Be Key to Hydrogen-powered Vehicles

by Casey Lindberg and Louis Bergeron

Hydrogen-powered cars sound like a great idea, but how do you stuff enough hydrogen into a small, portable volume that's practical as fuel? Help could be on the way in the form of a hydrogen-rich compound discovered by researchers in the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Science at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

The newly discovered material is a high-pressure form of ammonia borane, a solid material which itself is already imbued with ample hydrogen. By working with the parent material at high pressure in an atmosphere artificially enriched with hydrogen, the scientists were able to ratchet up the hydrogen content of the material by roughly 50 percent.

"Including the hydrogen already stored in ammonia borane, this new material can store around 30 weight percent in total," said SIMES researcher Yu Lin, lead author of a paper describing the work that was published last week in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Department of Energy has set a target for hydrogen-powered vehicles to have an on-board storage system able to hold 9 percent, by weight, of hydrogen, by 2015. The new compound, called ammonia borane-hydrogen, contains more than triple that amount. Read more...

Reminder: LCLS Proposal Deadline This Friday

Proposals are due this Friday, May 15, for scientific experiments with soft X-rays using the Linac Coherent Light Source's Atomic, Molecular and Optical and Soft X-ray Materials Science instruments during March–July 2010. For details and contact information, please see the Second LCLS Call for Proposals.

Welcome New SLACers!

(Photo - SLAC new employee orientation May 2009)

(Photo by Doug Kreitz.)

New SLAC staff attending the New Employee Orientation last Thursday, May 7 included:

Back row, from left: Michael Ramos, Muhammed Hossain, Bruce Hill, Bryan Fulsom, Greg W. Johnson, Carlos Rodrigues, Philip Pines

Front row, from left: Jiquan Guo, Norman Picker, Jr., Chang-Ming Tsai, Kenneth Leung

Welcome to SLAC!

Colloquium Today: The Compact Light Source

Today at 4:15 p.m. in Panofsky Auditorium, SLAC physicist Ron Ruth will present "The Compact Light Source: Its Beginning, Development and Recent Experiments."

Past research at SLAC introduced a new X-ray source concept, a miniature synchrotron light source. This early research led later to the formation of a corporation, Lyncean Technologies, to develop the Compact Light Source. The prototype development of the CLS is nearing completion now. The CLS is a near-monochromatic, tunable, homelab-size, hard X-ray source with beamlines that can be used like the X-ray beamlines at the synchrotrons—but it is about 200 times smaller than a synchrotron light source. Ruth's presentation will discuss the beginnings of Lyncean and the CLS ideas, and then introduce the basic principles, design and testing of the Compact Light Source.

The colloquium is free and open to all. See the SLAC Colloquium Web site for more details.

Next Monday, Stanford physicist Hari Manoharan will discuss low-temperature scanning probe microscopy.

Around SLAC:
Great Horned Owls Nesting at End Station B

(Photo - owls nesting on SLAC End Station B)

(Photo by Brad Plummer.)

by Michael Wall

Want to see a couple of two-foot-tall birds with bright yellow eyes, feathery ear tufts and five-foot wingspans? Then head over to End Station B, where Great Horned Owls are nesting on a concrete ledge about 50 feet up.

You should get over there soon, because the owls might not be around much longer. Great Horned Owls usually breed in late January or early February, laying two to four eggs in a nest appropriated from another large bird, such as a raven or red-tailed hawk. The eggs hatch after four or five weeks, and the young are strong fliers ten weeks later—which means the birds could be making travel plans any day now.

Two owls have been spotted at the nest, one a bit larger than the other. They could be the mother and father—males are smaller than females—or an adult and a chick that's almost grown up. Bring binoculars for a good look.

(Photo by Brad Plummer.)

This is not the first time Great Horned Owls have nested at End Station B. In 2006, a pair raised two chicks there, in what might be the same spot.

Great Horned Owls are found throughout the Americas, from Alaska south to Argentina. They eat a range of animals, from insects to turkeys, but they prefer mammals such as rabbits and squirrels. They're powerful birds, capable of taking prey two to three times their own weight. And Great Horned Owls are the only animals known that regularly eat skunks.

So maybe it's a good thing they're 50 feet up that ledge, out of sniffing distance.

Events

Today (4:15 p.m.) SLAC Colloquium: The Compact Light Source—Its Beginning, Development and Recent Experiments
May 12 (4:15 p.m.) Stanford Physics Colloquium: Peeking at the Berry Phase in Dirac Materials
May 12 (7:30 p.m.) Public Lecture: Angels & Demons—The Science behind the Scenes
May 13 (12:00 p.m.) Experimental Seminar: Measurements of fD+ and fDs constants at CLEO

Access (see all)

Phone Switch Problems Resolved

Announcements
(see all | submit)

Lab Announcements

Community Bulletin Board

Training

Lab Training (calendar | register)

Today (8:00 a.m.)
CPR/First Aid Recertification
May 12 (7:30 a.m.)
Permit Required Confined Space
May 12 (1:00 p.m.) Pressure Safety Training

Upcoming Workshops & Classes

News (submit)

Using Crab Cavities, KEKB Breaks Luminosity World Record KEK news release on Interactions
Hubble Fix Mission Set for Launch BBC News
Equivalence Principle in Space Test Physorg

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View online at http://today.slac.stanford.edu/.

High-pressure Compound Could Be Key to Hydrogen-powered Vehicles by Casey Lindberg and Louis Bergeron Hydrogen-powered cars sound like a great idea, but how do you stuff enough hydrogen into a small, portable volume that's practical as fuel? Help could be on the way in the form of a hydrogen-rich compound discovered by researchers in the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Science at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The newly discovered material is a high-pressure form of ammonia borane, a solid material which itself is already imbued with ample hydrogen. By working with the parent material at high pressure in an atmosphere artificially enriched with hydrogen, the scientists were able to ratchet up the hydrogen content of the material by roughly 50 percent. "Including the hydrogen already stored in ammonia borane, this new material can store around 30 weight percent in total," said SIMES researcher Yu Lin, lead author of a paper describing the work that was published last week in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The Department of Energy has set a target for hydrogen-powered vehicles to have an on-board storage system able to hold 9 percent, by weight, of hydrogen, by 2015. The new compound, called ammonia borane-hydrogen, contains more than triple that amount. Read more... Reminder: LCLS Proposal Deadline This Friday Proposals are due this Friday, May 15, for scientific experiments with soft X-rays using the Linac Coherent Light Source's Atomic, Molecular and Optical and Soft X-ray Materials Science instruments during March–July 2010. For details and contact information, please see the Second LCLS Call for Proposals. Welcome New SLACers! (Photo by Doug Kreitz.) New SLAC staff attending the New Employee Orientation last Thursday, May 7 included: Back row, from left: Michael Ramos, Muhammed Hossain, Bruce Hill, Bryan Fulsom, Greg W. Johnson, Carlos Rodrigues, Philip Pines Front row, from left: Jiquan Guo, Norman Picker, Jr., Chang-Ming Tsai, Kenneth Leung Welcome to SLAC! Colloquium Today: The Compact Light Source Today at 4:15 p.m. in Panofsky Auditorium, SLAC physicist Ron Ruth will present "The Compact Light Source: Its Beginning, Development and Recent Experiments." Past research at SLAC introduced a new X-ray source concept, a miniature synchrotron light source. This early research led later to the formation of a corporation, Lyncean Technologies, to develop the Compact Light Source. The prototype development of the CLS is nearing completion now. The CLS is a near-monochromatic, tunable, homelab-size, hard X-ray source with beamlines that can be used like the X-ray beamlines at the synchrotrons—but it is about 200 times smaller than a synchrotron light source. Ruth's presentation will discuss the beginnings of Lyncean and the CLS ideas, and then introduce the basic principles, design and testing of the Compact Light Source. The colloquium is free and open to all. See the SLAC Colloquium Web site for more details. Next Monday, Stanford physicist Hari Manoharan will discuss low-temperature scanning probe microscopy. Around SLAC: Great Horned Owls Nesting at End Station B (Photo by Brad Plummer.) by Michael Wall Want to see a couple of two-foot-tall birds with bright yellow eyes, feathery ear tufts and five-foot wingspans? Then head over to End Station B, where Great Horned Owls are nesting on a concrete ledge about 50 feet up. You should get over there soon, because the owls might not be around much longer. Great Horned Owls usually breed in late January or early February, laying two to four eggs in a nest appropriated from another large bird, such as a raven or red-tailed hawk. The eggs hatch after four or five weeks, and the young are strong fliers ten weeks later—which means the birds could be making travel plans any day now. Two owls have been spotted at the nest, one a bit larger than the other. They could be the mother and father—males are smaller than females—or an adult and a chick that's almost grown up. Bring binoculars for a good look. (Photo by Brad Plummer.) This is not the first time Great Horned Owls have nested at End Station B. In 2006, a pair raised two chicks there, in what might be the same spot. Great Horned Owls are found throughout the Americas, from Alaska south to Argentina. They eat a range of animals, from insects to turkeys, but they prefer mammals such as rabbits and squirrels. They're powerful birds, capable of taking prey two to three times their own weight. And Great Horned Owls are the only animals known that regularly eat skunks. So maybe it's a good thing they're 50 feet up that ledge, out of sniffing distance.	Events Today (4:15 p.m.) SLAC Colloquium: The Compact Light Source—Its Beginning, Development and Recent Experiments May 12 (4:15 p.m.) Stanford Physics Colloquium: Peeking at the Berry Phase in Dirac Materials May 12 (7:30 p.m.) Public Lecture: Angels & Demons—The Science behind the Scenes May 13 (12:00 p.m.) Experimental Seminar: Measurements of fD+ and fDs constants at CLEO Access (see all) Phone Switch Problems Resolved Announcements (see all \| submit) Lab Announcements New Course: Electrical Equipment Inspection Program Training ARRA Procurement Summary All Sessions Cancelled for Incident Investigation Training Community Bulletin Board Energy Summer School Accepting Applications Second LCLS Call for Proposals: Deadline May 15 SuperB Workshop Registration Open Registration Open: Ultrafast X-ray Summer School 2009 Training Lab Training (calendar \| register) Today (8:00 a.m.) CPR/First Aid Recertification May 12 (7:30 a.m.) Permit Required Confined Space May 12 (1:00 p.m.) Pressure Safety Training Upcoming Workshops & Classes MS Office 2007 Classes Financial Overview Class News (submit) Using Crab Cavities, KEKB Breaks Luminosity World Record KEK news release on Interactions Hubble Fix Mission Set for Launch BBC News Equivalence Principle in Space Test Physorg
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