Fabrication and electrochemical activity of Ni-attached carbon nanotube electrodes for hydrogen storage in alkali electrolyte

The electrochemical activity of an electrode of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) attached with Ni nanoparticles was investigated. A surface modification technique enabled different Ni particle densities to coat onto the CNT surface, which was chemically oxidized by nitric acid. It was found that each nickel nanoparticle has an average size of 30–50 nm, and the Ni-attached CNTs still possessed a similar pore size distribution. Cyclic voltammetry measurements in 6 M KOH showed that the electrochemical adsorption and desorption amount of hydrogen is a linearly increasing function of the Ni loading. This enhancement of electrochemical activity was ascribed to a fact that Ni particle acts as a redox site for hydrogen storage, thus leading to a greater specific peak current. According to our calculation, the electrochemical capacitance of nickel nanocatalyst in KOH electrolyte was estimated to be the value of 217 F/g. Charge/discharge cycling demonstrated that the Ni-attached CNT electrode maintains fairly good cycleability during 50 cycles.