Exfoliated graphite nanofibers for hydrogen storage

Exfoliation of graphite nanofibers (GNF) expands the interplanar spacing of the GNF, which leads to increased hydrogen storage. Hydrogen uptake measurements at 20 bar indicated that the overall hydrogen uptake and operative adsorption temperature are sensitive to the structural variations and graphitic spacing. The increased surface area of the EGNF-1000 led to a 1.2% hydrogen uptake at 77 K and 20 bar, a three-fold increase in hydrogen physisorption of the starting material. These results suggested that selective exfoliation of a nanofiber is a means by which to control the relative binding energy of the hydrogen interaction with the carbon structure and thus vary the operative adsorption temperature. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the ACS Fuel Chemistry Meeting (Washington, DC Fall 2005).