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Hydrogen storage in incompletely etched multilayer Ti2CTx at room temperature

Nature Nanotechnology volume 16, pages 331–336 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Hydrogen storage materials are the key to hydrogen energy utilization. However, current materials can hardly meet the storage capacity and/or operability requirements of practical applications. Here we report an advancement in hydrogen storage performance and related mechanism based on a hydrofluoric acid incompletely etched MXene, namely, a multilayered Ti2CTx (T is a functional group) stack that shows an unprecedented hydrogen uptake of 8.8 wt% at room temperature and 60 bar H2. Even under completely ambient conditions (25 °C, 1 bar air), Ti2CTx is still able to retain ~4 wt% hydrogen. The hydrogen storage is stable and reversible in the material, and the hydrogen release is controllable by pressure and temperature below 95 °C. The storage mechanism is deduced to be a nanopump-effect-assisted weak chemisorption in the sub-nanoscale interlayer space of the material. Such a storage approach provides a promising strategy for designing practical hydrogen storage materials.

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Fig. 1: Structural characterization of Ti2CTx.
Fig. 2: Hydrogen storage performances of Ti2CTx.
Fig. 3: Key structural factors determining hydrogen storage in Ti2CTx.
Fig. 4: Mechanism analysis of hydrogen storage in Ti2CTx.

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Most of the data have been provided as supplementary figures and videos along with this article. Additional data supporting this paper are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (21673014, 21975010 and 51731002). We thank X. G. Li (Peking University) for assistance in the hydrogen storage measurement. We acknowledge the General Purpose Powder Diffractometer at the China Spallation Neutron Source for providing the neutron powder diffraction analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China

    Shiyuan Liu, Jieyuan Liu, Xiaofang Liu, Jiaxiang Shang, Ronghai Yu & Jianglan Shui

  2. State Grid Smart Grid Research Institute, Future Science and Technology City, Beijing, China

    Li Xu

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Contributions

J. Shui, S.L. and J.L. designed the research. S.L. and J.L. performed the experiments. S.L. and J. Shang conducted the DFT calculation. J.L., S.L., X.L. and J. Shui co-wrote the manuscript. X.L., L.X., R.Y. and J. Shui supervised the project. All the authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jianglan Shui.

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Peer review information Nature Nanotechnology thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–24, Tables 1–5, Videos 1–4 and refs. 1–22.

Supplementary Video 1

Infrared thermal video of the ignition and combustion processes of a fully hydrogenated Ti2CTx disc.

Supplementary Video 2

Infrared thermal video of the ignition and combustion processes of a dehydrogenated Ti2CTx disc.

Supplementary Video 3

Video of the ignition and combustion processes of a hydrogenated Ti2CTx disc.

Supplementary Video 4

Video of the ignition and combustion processes of a dehydrogenated Ti2CTx disc.

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Liu, S., Liu, J., Liu, X. et al. Hydrogen storage in incompletely etched multilayer Ti2CTx at room temperature. Nat. Nanotechnol. 16, 331–336 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-020-00818-8

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