A comparative study of hydrogen uptake features of Co, Ni and Pd modified nanofibres and activated carbon

Hydrogen represents a notable R&D area due to its impact on short and middle term energy business. Implementation of the so-called hydrogen economy still faces some technological breakthroughs. The most predominant belongs to storage; its state of the art is mainly focused on solid-state phenomena through physisorption or chemisorption. It has been found that thermal and acid pre-treatments of carbon nanofibres and activated carbon have opposite effects on hydrogen uptake levels. Thermal pre-treatment enhances hydrogen uptake; nonetheless, acid pre-treatment does not favour hydrogen–carbon interactions. Pd modified thermally-acidic pre-treated carbon materials have reversible hydrogen uptakes at the evaluated condition. On the other hand, Ni and Co modified thermally-acidic pre-treated carbon materials certainly uptake hydrogen, but it is not solely released (H2O and CH4 are produced).