Synthesis of a hydrogen storage composite consisting of an inter-metallic alloy, carbon nanotubes and palladium

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Patrick Ndungu, pndungu@uwc.ac.za, Nkele Onyegubule, Alexander Nechaev, and Vladimir Linkov. University of the Western Cape, South African Institute for Advanced Materials Chemistry, Modderdam Road, Cape Town, South Africa
One of the key factors in the realization of a hydrogen based economy is the safe and economical storage of hydrogen. Current commercially available hydrogen storage materials fall short of a suitable hydrogen storage capacity, such as the 6.0 % wt. capacity set forth by the United States department of energy. In the present study we present a simple layer by layer method to grow carbon nanotubes on the surface of iron titanium, a commercially available hydrogen storage alloy, and the deposition of palladium onto the alloy-nanotube composites. The composite material was thoroughly investigated using SEM, BET, and TGA.