Carbon Nano/Microstructures for Hybrid Hydrogen Storage Based on Specially Treated Carbon Fibers

The fabrication of carbon 3D-nano/microstructures based on the nanostructure deposition from gas phase on the surface of specially treated carbon fibres is proposed as an initial preparative stage to produce a carbonaceous scaffold for hybrid (adsorption-absorption) hydrogen storage materials. This materials design approach is focused toward the hybrids/composites, which could combine the capacity of compounds consuming hydrogen chemically with high specific surface area of systems adsorbing hydrogen intensively by physisorption. The fullerene molecules in the reaction zone can serve not only as a source of carbon pair (arc discharge) but as the catalyst of synthesis of carbon nanostructures (pyrolysis of hydrocarbons). In the present work the carbon fibres were impregnated by fullerene solution in toluene that catalyzed the process of carbon nanotubes growth at the fibres surface.