Storage of Hydrogen in Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Pores of molecular dimensions can adsorb large quantities of gases owing to the enhanced density of the adsorbed material inside the pores, a consequence of the attractive potential of the pore walls. Pederson and Broughton have suggested that carbon nanotubes, which have diameters of typically a few nanometres, should be able to draw up liquids by capillarity, and this effect has been seen forlow-surface-tension liquids in large-diameter, multi-walled nanotubes. Here we show that a gas can condense to high density inside narrow, single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs). Temperature-programmed desorption spectroscopy shows that hydrogen will condense inside SWNTs under conditions that do not induce adsorption within a standard mesoporous activated carbon. The very high hydrogen uptake in thesematerials suggests that they might be effective as a hydrogen-storage material for fuel-cell electric vehicles.