Anatase–CMK-3 nanocomposite development for hydrogen uptake and storage

The nanometric carbon CMK-3 modified with TiO2 in anatase phase was synthesized and applied to energy uptake and storage. TiO2 nanoclusters are important for hydrogen energy harvesting. The creation of porous structures or large surface with TiO2 nanoclusters inside can potentially face the challenge of improving their efficiency. In the present work, we report the synthesis and characterization of TiO2–CMK-3 material assembled from anatase nanoparticles dispersed in the nanometric carbon CMK-3. The resulting nanocomposite was characterized by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and N2 adsorption–desorption analysis. The newly synthesized hybrid composites exhibited significantly enhanced H2 storage, in which CMK-3-ordered porous carbon modified with anatase nanoclusters proved to be a material for hydrogen uptake. The nanoparticles of anatase (∼5 nm) incorporated onto CMK-3 showed higher hydrogen uptake at low and high pressures (2.9 wt% of H2 sorption at 10 bar and 77 K) than CMK-3. The approach includes a discussion of H2 adsorption process and storage properties.