Hydrogen Permeation Through Glass

Abstract

Physical storage of gaseous hydrogen under high-pressure in glassy micro-containers such as spheres and capillaries is a promising concept for enhancing safety and the volumetric capacity of mobile hydrogen storage systems. As very low permeation through the container wall is required for storage of compressed hydrogen, development of glasses of minimal hydrogen permeability is needed. For this purpose, one has to understand better the dependence of hydrogen permeability on glass structure. The paper points out that minimizing the accessible free volume is a sound strategy to minimize hydrogen permeability. Based on previously measured and comprehensive literature data, it is shown that permeation is independently controlled by ionic porosity and network modifier content. Thus, ionic porosity in modified and fully polymerized networks can be decreased equally to the lowest hydrogen permeability among the glasses under study. Applying this concept, a drop of up to 30,000 with respect to the permeation of hydrogen molecules through silica glass is attainable.

Advancing the Mechanical Performance of Glasses: Perspectives and Challenges

“…[90] Some less hypothetical applications involve thin glass membranes, for example, for gas separation or storage. [13,14] Aside from the manufacturing technology for achieving these very low thickness specifications, the edge strength resulting from cutting, dicing, and other post-processing methods remain a major bottleneck. [91,92] Furthermore, a trade-off exists between glass thickness and frangibility, see following Section 5.…”

“…It may also be driven by new levels of functionality and safety requirements (e.g., smart windows, [10] but also pharmaceutical packaging [11] ), sustainability goals (lightweight objects with reduced embodied CO 2 , enhanced service life), upscaling efforts (e.g., chemically strengthened glass products, larger and/ or thinner windows or other glass structures in architecture), or emerging applications of specialty glasses. For example, glasses with adapted mechanical performance are expected to play important roles in 5G and mm wave technologies, [12] as membranes for gas separation, [13,14] or as microscale objects [15] such as in glass-based microfluidic reactors and sensor components or capillary devices. This holds in similar ways for the many other areas, in which glasses are indispensable components.…”

An atomistic perspective on the diffusion and permeation of hydrogen and isotopes through an engineered nanoporous silica membrane using molecular dynamics simulations

“…These systems represent a condition similar to the leakage of H 2 gas through the silica wall (used for storage) 4,7 or the leakage of tritium gas from the walls of fusion research reactors. 18,19,21 The structural material of these reactors is provided with a TPB (tritium permeation barrier) coating consisting of amorphous silica as the major constituent. 21 Being the subject of the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) program, our objective was focused on studying the permeation of H 2 and isotopes across the silica glass membrane under a gradient of chemical potential derived from the difference in the concentration, temperature, and pressure across the silica structural material.…”

“…18,19,21 The structural material of these reactors is provided with a TPB (tritium permeation barrier) coating consisting of amorphous silica as the major constituent. 21 Being the subject of the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) program, our objective was focused on studying the permeation of H 2 and isotopes across the silica glass membrane under a gradient of chemical potential derived from the difference in the concentration, temperature, and pressure across the silica structural material. The atoms of the permeate side piston were subjected to a constant force in the negative x direction to maintain a pressure of 1 atm on the permeate side.…”

Surface, Structural, and Mechanical Properties Enhancement of Cr2O3 and SiO2 Co-Deposited Coatings with W or Be

“…In this paper, we focused our attention on hydrogen permeation barrier-like candidates (HPB), namely oxides and metals, proposing different configurations and investigating their structural integrity in order to provide a general insight prior to complex permeation measurements campaigns. Generally, oxides express different response to hydrogen permeability [5], thus they are highly applicable as permeation barrier candidates and as structural barrier materials in hydrogen storage devices [6], vacuum solar receivers [7], and fusion reactors [8,9]. Taking these facts into consideration, two oxides with different properties in relation to the hydrogen permeation were studied, namely chromium oxide with an applicable permeation reduction factor up to ~10 3 [2,[10][11][12] and the less studied silicon dioxide [13].…”