Hydrogen storage using metal oxide loaded in polymer-derived carbon

Abstract

Hydrogen storages play an important part in hydrogen energy scenarios. Several methods have been investigated to store hydrogen effectively and adsorptive approach is one of the best methods proposed. Porous carbon is among adsorbent materials that have the potential to be used. Unfortunately, on its own, carbon showed a low hydrogen storage capacity. One way to improve the hydrogen uptake is to impregnate carbon with metal. This paper presents the synthesis and characterization of adsorbent based on nickel oxide/porous carbon for hydrogen adsorption. The porous carbon employed was polymer-derived carbon synthesized by pyrolysis of phenolic resin (1170 m2/g specific surface area and 6.05 nm mean diameter). As comparison, a commercial carbon of biomass-derived carbon was also studied (1320 m2/g specific surface area and 1.80 nm mean diameter). Both porous carbons were impregnated with a 20 wt.% nickel or a mix of 10 wt.% nickel and 10 wt.% magnesium in their oxide forms. To load metal in carbon, a wet incipient method was implemented to disperse nickel precursor inside pores of carbon followed with a calcination process at 375°C. The characterization by scanning electron microscopy-EDX showed a successful dispersion of metals on carbon. Adsorption measurement was performed at ambient temperature and resulting in an enhancement of hydrogen uptake by metal oxide-loaded carbon compared to only pristine carbon.