US Patent 8119094 - Carbon nanohorn for fluorine storage

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/8119094.html


For synthesis of UF₆ in uranium enrichment in energy industries, fluorine gas has been used on a mass scale for a long period of time. However, fluorine gas has extremely high reactivity and corrosiveness which makes storage a difficult problem. This patent is based on research from Sumio Iijima (often credited as the discoverer of carbon nanotubes in 1991) and teaches how carbon nanohorns may be useful for storing fluorine gas. Claim 1 reads:

1. A method of taking out fluorine gas by heating a fluorinated carbon nanohorn in a pressure-reduced hydrogen atmosphere of 0.5 kPa or less.