n-Tec AS

n-Tec and its consortium partners (of which IFE is also a member) finished an EU funded research project called HYCONES at the end of 2009. HYCONES proved that the use of a new, leading-edge nanomaterial called carbon cones (CCs) could be used as a practical, inexpensive, lightweight, and high capacity H₂ storage medium, capable of storing and releasing over 4 weight % of H₂ at room temperature. Carbon cones are a new allotrope of carbon, fundamentally different from other known carbon structures and are composed of carbon microstructures in the form of flat discs and cones. The CCs consist of curved graphite sheets, where five different cone angles are possible respective of having one to five pentagons at the cone tips. Patented experiments clearly demonstrate unprecedented uptake-release of H₂ compared to other carbon materials, as well as a new form of interaction between carbon and H₂ (in contrast to conventional physi- and chemi-sorption), capable of releasing H2 at room temperature. This unique behaviour was explained after ad-hoc computational calculations, which indicate that due to the special topology of CCs, the system is characterised by electronic properties distinctively different from any other form of activated or nanostructured carbon (bucky-balls, single- and multi-wall nanotubes).  HYCONES main target is to develop a radically new H₂ storage material with the potential to meet vehicle on-board storage requirements.

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