Hydrogen adsorption characteristics of Li-dispersed silica nanotubes

Aligned Li-dispersed silica nanotubes were prepared by sol–gel template method for H2 storage. The nanotubes were characterized by XRD, SEM and TEM. Electron microscope results showed that uniform length and diameter of Li-dispersed silica nanotubes were obtained. It was observed that the diameter of nanotubes correspond to that of the template. The silica nanotubes obtained had an amorphous framework with 40–50 nm in wall thickness and 200 ± 10 nm in the outer diameter. In the gravimetric H2 adsorption–desorption experiments, the silica nanotubes and the Li-dispersed silica nanotubes showed a 0.15 and 0.29 wt% at 77 K under 4.5 MPa, respectively.