Montmorillonite clay intercalated with nanoparticles for hydrogen storage

According to the expectations around the world concerning future of energy sources, hydrogen will be in a few years the most important energy carrier for stationary and mobile applications. Hydrogen storage is the bottleneck on the race to commercialize technologies based on the use of hydrogen, and specifically for mobile applications, the research goal for 2010 is to develop a device with at least 6% w/w of storage capacity. Highly porous carbon-based materials are among the most promising materials, with Carbon Molecular Sieves CMS) and Carbon Nanotubes (CNT) the most studied. In both cases materials are structured in such a way that hydrogen must diffuse along channels (micropores) where walls represent a restriction for the adsorption/desorption cycle. In this study, an alternative material is prepared by separation of clay layers with silica nanoparticles of diameter around 12 nm. The hydrogen storage capacity increased from 0.12 for untreated clay to 0.40% w/w for nanoassembled clay, measured at 77 K and atmospheric pressure, and according to intercalated clay characterization, almost all the surface available on the clay was exposed for adsorption.