A Fullerenes Based Oxygen Storage, Generation & Delivery Technology

Fullerenes - the recently discovered pure carbon molecules - have a unique closed caged structure. This closed cage molecular structure bestows fullerene based solids with two important characteristics: first, an unprecedented lattice structure; and second, a molecular environment around fullerenes that is highly electronegative. The lattice structure of fullerene based solids consists of large octahedral sites, large enough to store any bi-molecular gas molecule. The highly electronegative molecular environment around fullerenes energetically favors physical adsorption of gas species - thereby providing the necessary thermodynamic incentive for gas storage. These unique combination of characteristics makes fullerene based solids ideally suited for storage, generation and delivery. This proposal will establish, as part of Phase I work, the proof-of-concept that fullerene based solids can store and delivery oxygen. The effort envisioned is to prepare fullerene based oxygen storage and generation units in many different forms. The Phase I effort will directly lead a scaled up design for the Phase II work. The Phase II work will focus on optimizing the performance of fullerene based oxygen storage and delivery technology. The Phase III effort will commercialize this fullerene based technology for applications in medicine, hygiene, energy, space, etc.