Exploration of Heterogeneous Catalyst for Molecular Hydrogen Ortho-Para Conversion

Molecular hydrogen (H2) ortho-para conversion (O/P conversion) proceeds slowly at low temperatures accompanying a heat release. Thus, catalysts for accelerating this conversion rate are highly demanded in terms of the storage and utilization of liquid H2. We experimentally screened the catalysts for this purpose by examining a broad range of materials covering magnetic, non-magnetic, metallic, and nonmetallic oxides. The primary conclusions obtained are summarized below. (1) active materials are required to be non-metallic and to bear the cations with ionic radii smaller than the bond length of H2. (2) Metallic materials have almost no activity irrespective of with or without magnetism (3). The activity of materials belonging to (1) is largely enhanced when the constituting cation has a magnetic moment. In addition, there is a class of materials for which the activity is distinctly enhanced just upon substitution by the foreign ions.