The Synthesis and Characterization of Metal Organic Framework/Graphite Oxide Composites for Hydrogen Capturing

Abstract

Hydrogen being the cleanest fuel has one of the highest energy densities. The cleanliness of hydrogen provides an attractive alternative to fossil fuels. Greenhouse emissions can be reduced by using the less fossil fuel. Those industries which use hydrogen as a fuel have the advantage of emitting water as waste product. But the main problem is of the hydrogen storage. These days a lot of work is being done on metal organic frameworks for better hydrogen storage. Metal organic frameworks have great tendency for hydrogen storage because of their simple preparation, tunable chemical functionality and structure toughness. In this work various composites of copper based metal organic framework and graphite oxide with different ratios have been synthesized. The composite materials have been studied for their hydrogen adsorption capacities. These compounds are characterized by X-ray diffraction, FT-IR spectroscopy, thermal analysis, scanning electron microscopy and BET. The new composites formed have the increased porosity and the surface area as compared to the parent materials. The crystalline structure of the composites has been confirmed by X-ray diffraction. MOF/GO 20% composite has the best surface area of 380m2g-1. Hydrogen uptake study shows that this composite can store 6.12% of H2 at -40 °C.