Intercalation optimized hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets for high efficiency hydrogen storage

Atomic doping or polymer grafting can significantly improve the hydrogen sorption performance of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) based materials. Herein, this paper reported h-BN nanosheets grafting degradable L-polylactic acid (PLLA) and h-BN nanosheets doping nickel nanoparticles (Ni NPs) for high efficiency hydrogen storage. Firstly, h-BN material was treated by sodium hydroxide solution, which the electronegativity B atom connected with –OH covalently and h-BN nanosheets would disperse uniformly. Then, Ni-h-BN powder would be achieved by calcining the mixture of Ni precursor and h-BN at 600 °C. PLLA-h-BN film would be achieved by PLLA composite alkali modified h-BN, so that the long molecular chains of PLLA were grafted to h-BN nanosheets. The experiment found h-BN nanosheets dope trace Ni and h-BN nanosheets graft PLLA would improve H2 sorption ability of h-BN by adjusting electron structure and expanding interlayer space of h-BN, simultaneously. The test indicted Ni-h-BN has H2 storage capacity of 7.3 wt%, PLLA-h-BN has H2 storage capacity of 6.1 wt% at room temperature and 15 bar, these h-BN materials exhibited an optimistic hydrogen storage performance than h-BN materials previously reported in literature. This work has provided effective strategy for the development of efficient hydrogen storage materials.