Agarose Derived Carbon Based Nanocomposite for Hydrogen Storage at Near-Ambient Conditions

TL;DR

This study presents a simple thermal decomposition method to synthesize nickel nanoparticle dispersed carbon nanocomposites, significantly enhancing hydrogen storage capacity at near-ambient conditions compared to pure carbon.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel, straightforward synthesis route for carbon-based nanocomposites with nickel nanoparticles, improving hydrogen storage capacity and demonstrating scalable potential.

Findings

Hydrogen storage capacity reached 0.73 wt.% at 298 K.

Dispersed nickel nanoparticles increased storage capacity by 6.5 times.

The nanocomposites showed reversible hydrogen sorption-desorption cycles.

Abstract

Nanocomposites comprising of high surface area adsorption materials and nanosized transition metals have emerged as a promising strategy for hydrogen storage application due to their inherent ability to store atomic and molecular forms of hydrogen by invoking mechanisms like physisorption and spillover mechanism or Kubas interaction. The potential use of these materials for both transport and stationary applications depends on reaching the ultimate storage capacity and scalability. In addition to achieving good hydrogen storage capacity, it is also vital to explore novel and efficient synthesis routes to control the microstructure. Herein, a direct and simple thermal decomposition technique is reported to synthesize carbon-based nanocomposites, where nickel nanoparticles are dispersed in a porous carbon matrix. The structure, morphology, composition and nature of bonding in the samples were investigated using transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. Sorption-desorption isotherms were used to study the hydrogen storage capacity of the nanocomposites at a moderate H2 pressure of 20 bar. Among the various nanocomposites examined, the best obtained storage capacity was 0.73 wt.% (against 0.11 wt.% for pure carbon sample) at 298 K with reversible cyclability. It is shown that the uniform dispersion of catalytic nanoparticles along with a high surface area carbon matrix helps in the enhancement of hydrogen storage capacity by a factor of 6.5 times over pure carbon.