Hydrogen Spillover in Pt-Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Composites: Formation of Stable C−H Bonds

Using in situ electrical conductivity and ex situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements, we have examined how the hydrogen uptake of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) is influenced by the addition of Pt nanoparticles. The conductivity of platinum-sputtered single-walled carbon nanotubes (Pt-SWNTs) during molecular hydrogen exposure decreased more rapidly than that of the corresponding pure SWNTs, which supports a hydrogenation mechanism facilitated by “spillover” of dissociated hydrogen from the Pt nanoparticles. C 1s XPS spectra indicate that the Pt-SWNTs store hydrogen by means of chemisorption, that is, covalent C−H bond formation: molecular hydrogen charging at elevated pressure (8.27 bar) and room temperature yielded Pt-SWNTs with up to 16 ± 1.5 at. % sp3-hybridized carbon atoms, which corresponds to a hydrogen-storage capacity of 1.2 wt % (excluding the weight of Pt nanoparticles). Pt-SWNTs prepared by the Langmuir−Blodgett (LB) technique exhibited the highest Pt/SWNT ratio and also the best hydrogen uptake.