Hydrogen storage capacity of carbon nanotubes γ - Irradiated in hydrogen and deuterium media

In presented experimental study, the single-walled carbon nanotube bundles were irradiated by ⁶⁰Co γ - quanta with energies 1.2 MeV in hydrogen and deuterium media at room temperature. Investigation of hydrogen sorption/desorption was carried out for irradiated and unirradiated samples in wide temperature range from 12 to 1273 K. Comparison of obtained results denotes that hydrogen adsorption capacity depends on gas environment used during γ - irradiation treatment. Moreover, this dependence is different in various temperature ranges. Irradiation in deuterium improves physisorption (below 65 K) up to 3.6 times. While irradiation in hydrogen medium improves chemsorption (above 673 K) up to 12.8 times in comparison with unirradiated sample. Single-walled carbon nanotubes are able to store hydrogen in temperatures from 70 to 500 K. Also, γ - irradiation in hydrogen and deuterium media enhance the amount of chemisorbed hydrogen even at gas loading pressure of 1 bar.