Efficient hydrogen storage with the combination of metal Mg and porous nanostructured material

High-energy density and low cost magnesium nanoparticles (Mg NPs)-based material are being sought to meet increasing capable of hydrogen (H2) storage demand. Here, a kind of air-stable Mg NPs supported on porous structured multi-walled carbon tubes-polymethyl methacrylate (MWCNTs-PMMA) template is prepared owing to reversible well-distributed, dispersed and small-sized Mg/MgH2 NPs. The aim is to improve the H2 storage capacity, hydrogen sorption kinetics and thermodynamics of nano Mg-based system without using catalyst. The organic Mg precursor was directly in-situ reduced to metallic Mg NPs in MWCNTs-PMMA template by lithium naphthalide. The size distribution of reduced Mg nanoparticles is around 3.6 ± 0.2 nm, confirmed by XRD and TEM analyses, which is due to the strong interaction between Mg NPs and MWCNTs-PMMA via PMMA binding Mg2+, as well as the confinement of porous template hindered the growth and agglomeration of Mg NPs. Moreover, except H2, O2 and H2O molecules can't infiltrate the porous structure of MWCNTs-PMMA resulted in the presence of air stable Mg NPs in the MWCNTs-PMMA. The work provides a new scope to prepare nano metal-based composite for H2 storage.