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By Jennifer Babson

I f a scientific breakthrough by two recently arrived chemistry professors, Nelly Rodriguez and Terry Baker, lives up to its billing, the automobile industry may never be the same again.

The duo, who came to Northeastern in 1996 from Pennsylvania State University-and who also happen to be husband and wife-have created a minuscule graphite fiber they claim can store enough hydrogen gas to power an electric car for 5,000 miles, and which presumably could be used to power everything from vending machines to laptops.

More fundamentally, such an innovation could render gasoline-powered vehicles obsolete. "Let's be honest, for petroleum companies, this is the last thing they want to see," says Baker, who used to work as a researcher for Exxon.

At first glance, the graphite material, which Rodriguez stores in small glass vials behind lock and key, resembles spongy soot. "But when you look at it under the microscope, it's beautiful," she says. Magnified twelve million times under an electron microscope, the substance does indeed appear magnificent. Layers of curly, black nanofibers (they look like small hairs) encase individual hydrogen atoms, much like slices of bread in a multidecker sandwich. The nanofibers "encourage" the hydrogen to liquefy and shrink, leaving more room for additional hydrogen molecules to be packed in-a characteristic that permits the material to store large quantities of hydrogen in its folds. When combined in a fuel cell with oxygen, hydrogen-an abundant, clean fuel that emits only water vapor as a by-product-produces an electric current.

The potential for storage of much larger-than-usual quantities of hydrogen has led to intense interest in the nanofibers, both within the scientific community and in the marketplace. While other hydrogen researchers are experimenting with carbon nanotubes they say can store up to four percent of their own weight in hydrogen, Rodriguez and Baker claim their material is able to store up to seventy-five percent of its own weight in hydrogen. It's an assertion that has raised eyebrows among some of their scientific colleagues-a skepticism the pair attributes to competitiveness. "At this point," Rodriguez says, pointing to a vial of spongy nanofibers, "it probably has more value than gold."

But the incredulity is also due to the couple's delay in subjecting their discovery to a peer review, as is commonly done before scientists go public with a new innovation or discovery. Baker and Rodriguez say they have been waiting to obtain a U.S. patent for the nanofiber production process before revealing their methods. "It's far too important to publish before you have complete coverage from a patent," he says. The patent was granted in August and an article, which details recent laboratory results, was submitted to a scientific journal in October. It should be published in about six months, after undergoing peer review.

"If what they are claiming is true, it is truly going to revolutionize transportation because it is going to very effectively deal with the problem of hydrogen storage, which is one of the obstacles to fuel cell storage," says Robert Williams, director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies at Princeton University. The difficulty in storing hydrogen in large quantities is one of the reasons electric cars, which must don a new fuel cell every fifty miles or so, have not caught on. "But," cautions Williams, "you really can't say anything about this until their paper comes out and it has been scrutinized by a peer review."

Alan Lloyd, chairman of the U.S. Department of Energy's Hydrogen Technical Advisory Panel, sounds a more optimistic note. "It's tremendously exciting. It will have tremendous implications for clean transportation in the future, there's no doubt about that," he says.

Baker and Rodriguez freely admit they are not quite sure why their invention works the way they say it does. The next phase of their research will be an investigation of the underpinnings of the material's behavior. In the meantime, the couple received a boost in September, when a German lab partially confirmed their results. Initial tests by the German Research Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen found the nanofibers could store ten to fifteen percent of their weight in hydrogen-a level far below that achieved by Baker and Rodriguez, but still a significant advance over currently available materials.

When Rodriguez decided in December 1996 to present her research findings to a group of scientists gathered in Boston for a meeting of the Materials Research Society, she had not a clue that the presentation would lead to such an outpouring of interest, she says. Since then, dozens of corporations, foreign governments, and other scientists have contacted the duo. Some of those with whom Rodriguez and Baker are in negotiation include the governments of Sweden and Canada and several automobile manufacturers, particularly Daimler-Benz, a leader in manufacturing fuel cell­powered vehicles. Moreover, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has expressed an interest in using the materials on a space probe. With phones ringing off the hook and new computers installed at the home office, the pair can barely keep up with their suitors. "We made a decision to talk about it and suddenly there was an avalanche," Baker says.

Eager to get a piece of the action, Department of Energy officials in June awarded the duo a $250,000 grant toward their nanofiber research. The agency has promised it will help fund the project-and renew the grant-for the next several years.

In an effort to raise money for additional tests (and control future use of their materials), the scientists are now in the midst of creating an international consortium of about eight companies that will be given access to their findings. "What we have in mind is a consortium that will support the research, but for that they will pay a hefty price" of about $250,000 a year, says Baker. Northeastern will collect about $145,000 from each donor.

While pleased that NASA has expressed an interest in their research, Baker and Rodriguez, both pacifists, are concerned that one day their product may be used to power weapons such as tanks or missiles. "If I could have a dream," Baker says in complete seriousness, "it would be that my materials be used for a better world, only for a peaceful world."

Baker discovered graphite nanofibers a quarter century ago while working for Britain's prestigious Atomic Energy Authority, but it was not until he joined forces with Rodriguez that they realized the material could be used to absorb gases. They're keeping mum about the exact recipe used to create their prized product, although Baker will reveal that the process involves creating a reaction between hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and metal particles such as nickel or iron.

Says Baker: "We protect the material as we do our lives."

Baker was not always so intense about chemistry. A native of industrial northern England, he once longed for the life of a professional cricketer. He got as far as the B-league and then "fell into chemistry," he says.

With the cricket pitch always on his mind, perhaps, Baker's early university days were a bit of a challenge. "I was not a straight-A student and I don't think a straight-A student is always desirable for research, because it may be better sometimes to have someone who can deal with failure," he says. "You will have that."

Though married, both scientists say they carefully separate their professional endeavors from their private lives. They insist that many of their associates don't even know they're a couple. "We don't bring our personal life to work-ever," says the soft-spoken and elegantly coiffed Rodriguez, a native of Colombia. On Sundays, the one day of the week they try to take a break from it all, they are likely to be sipping wine, humming along to a Puccini aria, or strolling the woods that surround their suburban Boston home.

While the couple expects to be thrust into the limelight when the journal paper is published, they think they've found a surefire method for staying grounded. For in addition to conducting research in Hurtig Hall, each teaches-of all things-a freshman chemistry class.

Laughs Rodriguez: "They make us think."

Jennifer Babson is a freelance writer in Boston.

 

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