Highly efficient catalytic derived synthesis process of carbon aerogel for hydrogen storage application

Abstract

For the present work, resorcinol-formaldehyde (R–F) aerogels were synthesized through both acid (nitric acid) and base (sodium carbonate) catalyzed sol-gel process followed by supercritical drying (SCD) as well as ambient pressure drying (APD). RF aerogels were carbonized at high temperatures to form carbon aerogels. The effect of the catalyst type and drying methods on the final characteristics were studied in detail. Microstructural and textural characteristics were evaluated through XRD, SEM, BET, RAMAN, FTIR, and TEM techniques. It was found that the combination of base catalysis and SCD delivered a higher micropore density and more uniform pore distribution. The CAs prepared under such conditions displayed a hydrogen uptake of 0.80 wt% at room temperature and 2.85 wt% at liquid nitrogen temperature (77 K).