Hydrogen adsorption characteristics of Li-dispersed silica nanotubes

Aligned Li-dispersed silica nanotubes were prepared by sol-gel template method for H-2 storage. The nanotubes were characterized by XRD, SEM and TEM. Electron microscope results showed that uniform length and diameter of Li-dispersed silica nanotubes were obtained. It was observed that the diameter of nanotubes correspond to that of the template. The silica nanotubes obtained had an amorphous framework with 40-50 nm in wall thickness and 200 +/- 10 nm in the outer diameter. In the gravimetric H-2 adsorption-desorption experiments, the silica nanotubes and the Li-dispersed silica nanotubes showed a 0.15 and 0.29 wt% at 77 K under 4.5 MPa, respectively. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.