Mechanisms of Hydrogen Sorption, Solubility and Diffusivity in Carbon Nanomaterials, Relevance to the On-Board Storage Problem

1. Introduction Thermodynamic analysis [1,2] of the most significant experimental data on the hydrogen sorption by graphites and related novel carbon-based nanomaterials at room temperatures and technological pressures (fullerenes, single-and multi-wall nanotubes, nanofibers, nanostructured graphites) is performed. The thermodynamic and kinetic (diffusion) characteristics of sorption processes are refined and compared with the theoretical quantities, for optimizing and a better understanding of the interaction between hydrogen and carbon materials. The attention is concentrated on the unique Rodriguez-Baker studies [3] of graphite nanofibers (charged at hydrogen pressure of 11 MPa), where a super hydrogen adsorption capacity (H/C ≈ 6-8) has been found.