USA Research and develop flexible cavitation material, which helps the car to store gas efficiently

US researchers have developed a kind of flexible cavity material, to decode the gas fuel of low pressure and room
temperature storage problems, help to extend the range of natural gas vehicles, to reduce the pressure of the LPG stations
configuration requirements.
This material contains the “metal-organic framework” (MOF), which is constructed from inorganic metal units and organic
ligands. In the whole structure, cobalt atoms and iron atoms were dispersed, and dibutyl phthalate was used in the link site.
The cavity was increased when the volume dilated, and the cavity was reduced almost completely when the volume was
reduced.
At the university of California, Berkeley, researchers report in the British journal nature, said in the first experiment, with
only a household the pressure of the compressor (equivalent to 35 and 36 of atmospheric pressure), the main components of
the pump into the gas methane, flexible MOF will expand and the gas adsorption material. Conversely, if methane is
released to drive the engine, the flexible material shrinks.
Fuel storage problems hinder the promotion of natural gas or hydrogen vehicles. The motivation for the project is that
natural gas is cheap and relatively clean compared with petrol or diesel. But the bottled pressure of compressed natural gas
is 250 atmospheres, and the storage temperature of liquid natural gas is minus 162 degrees Celsius. In addition, in the same
fuel tank volume, the energy density of compressed natural gas is at most one third of the energy density of gasoline, the
former is obviously insufficient.