An accurate volumetric differential pressure method for the determination of hydrogen storage capacity at high pressures in carbon materials Original Research Article

Widely different hydrogen adsorption capacities have been reported for a variety of carbon materials which have attracted attention for hydrogen storage. This has led to doubts as to the validity of some of the claims and it has been suggested that one possible reason for the disparate hydrogen sorption capacities may lie in the inaccurate measurement of the hydrogen adsorbed. The aim of the work described in this paper was to make a contribution to this debate by developing a means and method of producing repeatable, accurate measurements of hydrogen sorption capacity in carbon materials. The apparatus developed is a volumetric differential pressure set-up operating at up to 10 MPa and the method has a conservative limit of detection of 0.1 wt% and an accuracy of ±0.05 wt%, using 1.0–2.5 g samples of the carbon materials studied. These included a carbon nanofiber sample and a series of activated carbons, the latter displaying a direct correlation between the BET effective surface area and the hydrogen sorption capacity of the materials. The amount of hydrogen adsorbed was less than 1 wt% for all the carbons examined.