High hydrogen storage capacity of porous carbons prepared by using activated carbon.

A kind of activated carbon with further carbon dioxide and potassium hydroxide activations for hydrogen storage was investigated. The carbon dioxide and potassium hydroxide activations have apparently different effects on the pore structures and textures of the activated carbon which closely associated with the hydrogen storage properties. The potassium hydroxide activation can remarkably donate microporosity to the frameworks of the activated carbon. One of the resultant porous carbons exhibited a high surface area of up to 3190 m(2) g(-1) and large gravimetric hydrogen uptake capacity of 7.08 wt % at 77 K and 20 bar, which is one of the largest data reported for the porous carbon materials. This result suggests that the porous carbon with large amounts of active sites, high surface area, and high micropore volume related to optimum pore size could achieve high gravimetric hydrogen storage.