Templated carbon and graphene based hydrogen storage materials

Abstract

Hydrogen has been explored as an alternative source of energy due to its various advantages, such as higher energy density, non–polluting characteristics and renewable nature. The main concern regarding using hydrogen as fuel is its storage. Researchers have reported various porous carbon materials for hydrogen storage application. Majority of the reported hydrogen storage materials are microporous having high surface area. The commercially reported templates such as zeolites or silica gel are also expensive. The mesoporous carbons (2–20 nm) of high surface area and high pore volume are also reported recently as adsorbents. Incorporation of nonmetals and metals in the carbon matrix has been reported to affect the hydrogen uptake property. Among structured carbons, graphene has also high potential for hydrogen storage because of the unique layered structure and presence of heteroatoms in form of functional groups.