BRAVE NEW WORLDS

The project was submitted in response to the PRIN 2022 PNRR call. Its goal is to develop a low-cost, high-safety medium for hydrogen storage.

This type of system is ideal for future space infrastructures, supporting the exploration of the Moon and Mars, where hydrogen can be produced from internal water reservoirs or through solar-powered electrolysis.

The study proposes the development of a hydrogen storage system using clathrate hydrates.

Clathrates are a class of supramolecular solids in which water molecules are arranged in cage-like structures capable of trapping one or more gas molecules.

These system offer a safer, technologically simpler, and more economical alternative to traditional storage methods, which require high-pressure cylinders and energy-intensive systems.

The INAF research unit tests the stability of hydrogen clathrate hydrates under simulated planetary conditions.

My means of the experimental tools available at the Laboratory for Experimental Astrophysics (LASp) at the INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania, clathrates
are exposed to low-pressure and low-temperature environments typical of the surface of the Moon and Mars.

The clathrates are analysed using Raman spectroscopy, a technique capable of providing information on the molecular structure of the samples and on any
modification induced by the simulated conditions, which in turn affect the hydrogen storage capacity.