Areas of Interest:

Novel hydrogen storage materials and technologies. Novel fuel cell catalysts.

Activity and Expertise:

The group is active in two distinct areas of interest:

(1) The design, synthesis and characterisation of novel materials and systems for gas storage, separation and transport (particularly hydrogen and methane). Current interests include:

· coordination polymer frameworks,

· nano- and mesoporous solids,

· inorganic and carbon-based nanostructured materials,

· inorganic intercalation systems,

· liquid metals and light metal alloys.

The research is particularly focussed on the synthesis and characterisation of novel supramolecular and coordination polymer systems with controlled architectures and porosity, mesoporous carbons, templated silicas, inorganic nitride and chalcogenide nanotubes and nanowires, nitride intercalation systems.

(2) The design and synthesis of novel small molecular weight complexes that mimic NiFe hydrogenase models. These are intended to act as oxidising catalysts for H₂ to H⁺ within a

H₂ -O₂ fuel cell.

Group expertise centres around a diverse and extensive range of synthetic techniques covering organic, inorganic, coordination, covalent and ionic solid compounds. Characterisation capabilities include single crystal and powder X-ray diffraction (ex- and in situ), sorption and thermal analysis techniques (TG-DTA, DSC, IGA, BET etc), vibrational and resonance spectroscopy (IR, Raman, NMR, EPR), XPS and ToF SIMS, magnetometry (SQUID, MCD) and electron microscopy (SEM, TEM, EPMA, EDX, WDS, SAED etc).

~~Current interests of the group focus on~~

Credentials:

The group is a member of UKSHEC (UK Sustainable Hydrogen Energy Consortium) within the remit of the EPSRC-funded SUPERGEN programme. Members of the group are invited contributors to the UK-Japan Hydrogen Energy Workshops (Tokyo 2003; Birmingham 2004).

Fuel cell and/or Hydrogen courses and modules offered: -

None currently.

Contact: Dr Duncan H. Gregory

Email: duncan.gregory@nottingham.ac.uk

Tel: +44 (0)115 951 4594

Address: School of Chemistry,

University of Nottingham,

University Park,

Nottingham NG7 2RD UK.

Hydrogen Storage Group, School of Chemistry