ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

Hydration effects in gels for water splitting.

Abstract: Storing the energy available from the sun as a fuel that can be used anytime is a major global challenge. Organic materials synthesised from abundant elements that can harness solar energy are being widely researched. Our approach is to use some of these materials (perylene bisimides) in a photo-electrochemical cell to split water into oxygen and hydrogen that can be stored as a gas and used whenever necessary. These materials are made using self-assembly to form gels that can either be used directly as wet materials or dried and re-hydrated for better stability. Using small angle neutron scattering we will investigate where and how well water is located in the gel and dried gel materials. Neutrons can detect the difference between water and heavy water, which we will exploit to obtain information about where the water is located when the gel is re-hydrated.

Principal Investigator: Dr Laura Mears
Experimenter: Professor Dave Adams
Experimenter: Miss Charlotte Smith
Local Contact: Dr James Doutch
Experimenter: Professor Alex Cowan

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB1720272

ISIS Experiment Number: RB1720272

Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Data format: RAW/Nexus
Select the data format above to find out more about it.

Data Citation

The recommended format for citing this dataset in a research publication is as:
[author], [date], [title], [publisher], [doi]

For Example:
Dr Laura Mears et al; (2017): Hydration effects in gels for water splitting., STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB1720272

Data is released under the CC-BY-4.0 license.