Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Pre-mixed precursors for modulating the porosity of carbons for enhanced hydrogen storage: towards predicting the activation behaviour of carbonaceous matter

Balahmar, Norah; Mokaya, Robert

Authors

Norah Balahmar



Abstract

Highly porous carbons prepared from pre-mixtures of polypyrrole and raw sawdust or sawdust hydrochar achieve much higher surface area than is possible from single use of any one of the precursors. The pre-mixed precursors offer carbons with ultrahigh surface area (up to 3815 m2 g−1) and pore volume (up to ∼2.6 cm3 g−1) comprising two pore systems in the micropore (6–12 Å) and mesopore (22–28 Å) range. The porosity can be tailored via choice of pre-mix precursor ratios such that it is possible, under identical activation conditions, to generate carbons that are either microporous or mesoporous. The elemental composition of the precursors, in particular the molar ratio of oxygen to carbon (i.e., O/C molar ratio), is a key variable in determining the development of mesopores, with a high ratio favouring greater mesoporosity. The resulting activated carbons are homogeneous regardless of the pre-mix precursor ratios, and exhibit excellent hydrogen storage capacity that is much higher than can be attained by single-precursor derived samples. The carbons have excess hydrogen uptake (at −196 °C) of up to 3.6 wt% (at 1 bar) and 6.7 wt% (at 20 bar). The total hydrogen uptake is up to 8.1 wt% (at 20 bar), and 10 wt% (at 40 bar), which is much higher than that of most currently available benchmark porous materials. Due to their lower mesoporosity, the pre-mix samples have improved packing density, which means that their volumetric hydrogen uptake (at 40 bar) is much greater (ca. 40 g L−1) than that of single precursor samples (ca. 28 g L−1). The carbons are comparable to or outperform many benchmark materials such as MOFs in terms of their hydrogen uptake, including gravimetric uptake, volumetric uptake and deliverable hydrogen capacity (100 to 5 bar at 77 K). The carbons also have attractive room temperature hydrogen storage capacity. Our findings provide a new method for modulating the porosity of carbons that goes beyond current practice. Furthermore, the new insights on the effect of the O/C ratio make it possible to predict the activation behaviour of precursors in a manner that allows optimising porosity of carbons to match specific applications as demonstrated here for hydrogen storage.

Citation

Balahmar, N., & Mokaya, R. (2019). Pre-mixed precursors for modulating the porosity of carbons for enhanced hydrogen storage: towards predicting the activation behaviour of carbonaceous matter. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2019(29), 17466-17479. https://doi.org/10.1039/c9ta06308k

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jul 1, 2019
Online Publication Date Jul 2, 2019
Publication Date Aug 7, 2019
Deposit Date Jul 16, 2019
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Journal of Materials Chemistry A
Print ISSN 2050-7488
Electronic ISSN 2050-7496
Publisher Royal Society of Chemistry
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 2019
Issue 29
Pages 17466-17479
DOI https://doi.org/10.1039/c9ta06308k
Keywords Renewable energy, Sustainability and the environment; General materials science; General chemistry
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2311877
Publisher URL https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2019/TA/C9TA06308K#!divAbstract
Additional Information : This document is Similarity Check deposited; : Supplementary Information; : Robert Mokaya (ORCID); : Single-blind; : Received 12 June 2019; Accepted 1 July 2019; Accepted Manuscript published 2 July 2019; Advance Article published 9 July 2019

Files




You might also like



Downloadable Citations