Synthesis and Characterization of CMK Porous Carbons Modified with Metals Applied to Hydrogen Uptake and Storage

In this chapter, we have shown that hopeful hydrogen storage material can be obtained by ordered mesoporous carbons (carbons mesostructured from Korea, CMK-1 and CMK-3) and modified with metal/cations species. The pristine CMK-1 and CMK-3 were synthesized by replication using MCM-48 and SBA-15 as hard templates and sucrose as a carbon source. Incorporation of metal species was carried out by wetness impregnation. The mesoporous materials modified were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS), RAMAN, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and adsorption/desorption N2 isotherms. Carbon modified with metal/cations shows a better capacity for hydrogen uptake than that of the mesoporous carbons. The evolution of high-pressure hydrogen adsorption measured at 77 K shows that composites can significantly enhance hydrogen adsorption capacity and hydrogen storage performance of carbon materials, proving to be prospective candidates for application in hydrogen storage. The improved activity and the larger performance of composite materials are attributed to improved dispersion of uniform metal/cations nanoparticles as well as to efficient use of the support, which may originate a high-surface area and pore volume, allowing a large dispersion of clusters.