Scope of doped mesoporous (<10 nm) surfactant-modified alumina templated carbons for hydrogen storage applications

Metal (Ni/Pd) and nitrogen codoped mesoporous templated carbons were synthesized using low-cost surfactant-modified mesoporous alumina as a hard template via chemical vapor deposition for hydrogen storage application. Initially, high surface area (1508 m(2)/g) nitrogen-doped templated carbon was successfully prepared. Pore volume was also significant (1.64 cm(3)/g). The codoping with metals (Ni or Pd) reduced both the area and pore volume. All the codoped carbons were mesoporous (2-8 nm). Aggregated morphology was observed for nitrogen-doped carbon; tubular or noodle shape appeared on codoping with metals. The dispersion of Pd metal within the carbon framework was highest. The 2 wt% Pd codoped carbon showed the highest hydrogen uptake of 5 wt% (-196 degrees C; 25 bar). This may be attributed to its most number of active sites corresponding to the highest metal dispersion and amount of nitrogen present. The cyclic stability of the samples was also good with only 3% to 5% loss in storage capacity up to 10 cycles.