Synthesis of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) grown over suppported catalyst and their adsorption properties

Abstract

Hydrogen is considered as one of the renewable energy sources. The use of hydrogen as fuel particularly in automotives is hampered by the lack of a safe and economical storage medium. Materials with high hydrogen storage capacities are desirable for storage applications. Carbon based materials are well known for its capability as absorbents due to its adsorptive and large surface area properties. Thus, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are considered to be a promising medium for hydrogen storage in hydrogen-based energy system. Since the pioneering report on the discovery of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in 1991 by Iijima, scientists and researchers worldwide are very interested to investigate in depth this new family of carbon because of its myriad properties and potential applications. In this study, CNT's have been successfully synthesized by using catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CCVD) method. The as-synthesized CNTs were characterized using SEM/FE-SEM, EDAX, nitrogen adsorption (NA) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The structures of CNT formed were dependent on the catalytic support used. The as-synthesized CNTs are expected to have good storage capacity for hydrogen and fuel cell application.