The basic building block molecule of most common plastics, such as the milk jugs and water bottles that most of us have in our refrigerators could end up being a very efficient way of storing hydrogen molecules. By creating a complex molecule of two titanium atoms attached to the ends of an ethylene molecule, they may be able to absorb up to ten more hydrogen atoms on each molecule.

A team from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Turkey's Bilkent University have been working on this molecule that would release the hydrogen molecules with only modest heating. The hydrogen atoms would comprise 14 percent of the total weight which is double the DOE target of 6.5 percent of mass of a solid state hydrogen storage material. They believe that ethylene-based compounds, which are more readily available than some the carbon nano-tubes that they previously wanted to try, will also be more easily produced. There's no word on when this work will migrate from computer modeling to actual physical experiments, but the ideas seem very promising.

[Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology via GreenCarCongress]