What induces the dense storage of hydrogen of liquid- or solid-like density levels in carbon nanopores with sub-1 nm diameters?

Hydrogen energy is promising renewable energy and specifically, hydrogen storage is a bottleneck to commercializing hydrogen energy. Researchers have relied on the synthesis of porous materials in physisorption and lowering the H2 binding energy of hydride materials in chemisorption, all of which have been conducted in a similar manner respectively. However, the development of hydrogen storage materials applicable to onboard system isn't found yet. Hence, we examined the phenomenon of eccentric H2 storage in carbon nanopores with sub-1 nm diameters reported earlier, finding a lack of deep research on the fundamentals of this phenomenon. We formulate a hypothesis of H2 storage by intrinsic EMF (IEMF) interaction and firstly discover that in contrast to general intuition, the neutral carbon nanopore forms a significant IEMF even without an external EMF. Moreover, we confirm the difference of IEMF inside the nanopore from that outside the nanopore due to the overlap between the graphene layers and demonstrate that the resultant IEMF inside the nanopore governs the H2 storage in the carbon nanopore. This result will shed light on all the other areas related to abnormal phenomena in nanopores with sub-1 nm diameters.