No Arabic abstract
Hydrogen adsorption on graphene-supported metal clusters has brought much controversy due to the complex nature of the bonding between hydrogen and metal clusters. The bond types of hydrogen and graphene-supported Ti clusters are experimentally and theoretically investigated. Transmission electron microscopy shows that Ti clusters of nanometer-size are formed on graphene. Thermal desorption spectroscopy captures three hydrogen desorption peaks from hydrogenated graphene-supported Ti clusters. First principle calculations also found three types of interaction: Two types of bonds with different partial ionic character and physisorption. The physical origin for this rests on the charge state of the Ti clusters: when Ti clusters are neutral, H2 is dissociated, and H forms bonds with the Ti cluster. On the other hand, H2 is adsorbed in molecular form on positively charged Ti clusters, resulting in physisorption. Thus, this work clarifies the bonding mechanisms of hydrogen on graphene-supported Ti clusters.
The ability of atomic hydrogen to chemisorb on graphene makes the latter a promising material for hydrogen storage. Based on scanning tunneling microscopy techniques, we report on site-selective adsorption of atomic hydrogen on convexly curved regions of monolayer graphene grown on SiC(0001). This system exhibits an intrinsic curvature owing to the interaction with the substrate. We show that at low coverage hydrogen is found on convex areas of the graphene lattice. No hydrogen is detected on concave regions. These findings are in agreement with theoretical models which suggest that both binding energy and adsorption barrier can be tuned by controlling the local curvature of the graphene lattice. This curvature-dependence combined with the known graphene flexibility may be exploited for storage and controlled release of hydrogen at room temperature making it a valuable candidate for the implementation of hydrogen-storage devices.
We report on hydrogen adsorption and desorption on titanium-covered graphene in order to test theoretical proposals to use of graphene functionalized with metal atoms for hydrogen storage. At room temperature titanium islands grow with an average diameter of about 10 nm. Samples were then loaded with hydrogen, and its desorption kinetics was studied by thermal desorption spectroscopy. We observe the desorption of hydrogen in the temperature range between 400K and 700 K. Our results demonstrate the stability of hydrogen binding at room temperature and show that hydrogen desorbs at moderate temperatures in line with what required for practical hydrogen-storage applications.
Hydrogen adsorption on graphene can be increased by functionalization with Ti. This requires dispersing Ti islands on graphene as small and dense as possible, in order to increase the number of hydrogen adsorption sites per Ti atom. In this report, we investigate the morphology of Ti on nanocrystalline graphene and its hydrogen adsorption by scanning tunneling microscopy and thermal desorption spectroscopy, and compare the results with equivalent measurements on single-crystalline graphene. Nanocrystalline graphene consists of extremely small crystal grains of < 5 nm size. Ti atoms preferentially adsorb at the grain boundaries of nanocrystalline graphene and form smaller and denser islands compared to single-crystalline graphene. Surprisingly, however, hydrogen adsorbs less to Ti on nanocrystalline graphene than to Ti on single-crystalline graphene. In particular, hydrogen hardly chemisorbs to 1 ML of Ti on nanocrystalline graphene. This may be attributed to strong bonds between Ti and defects located along the grain boundaries in nanocrystalline graphene. This mechanism might apply to other metals, as well, and therefore our results suggest that when functionalizing graphene by metal atoms for the purpose of hydrogen storage or other chemical reactions, it is important to consider not only the morphology of the resulting surface, but also the influence of graphene on the electronic states of the metal.
Hydrogen bonds (HBs) play a crucial role in the physicochemical properties of ionic liquids (ILs). At present, HBs between cations and anions (Ca-An) or between cations (Ca-Ca) in ILs have been reported extensively. Here, we provided DFT evidences for the exists of HBs between anions (An-An) in the IL 1-(2-hydroxyethyl)-3-methylimidazolium 4-(2-hydroxyethyl)imidazolide [HEMIm][HEIm]. The thermodynamics stabilities of anionic, cationic, and H2O dimers together with ionic pairs were studied by potential energy scans. The results show that the cation-anion pair is the most stable one, while the HB in anionic dimer possesses similar thermodynamics stability to the water dimer. The further geometric, spectral and electronic structure analyses demonstrate that the inter-anionic HB meets the general theoretical criteria of traditional HBs. The strength order of four HBs in complexes is cation-anion pair > H2O dimer = cationic dimer > anionic dimer. The energy decomposition analysis indicates that induction and dispersion interactions are the crucial factors to overcome strong Coulomb repulsions, forming inter-anionic HBs. Lastly, the presence of inter-anionic HBs in ionic cluster has been confirmed by a global minimum search for a system containing two ionic pairs. Even though hydroxyl-functionalized cations are more likely to form HBs with anions, there still have inter-anionic HBs between hydroxyl groups in the low-lying structures. Our studies broaden the understanding of HBs in ionic liquids and support the recently proposed concept of anti-electrostatic HBs.
The results of density functional theory calculations and measurements using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of Co-nanoparticles dispersed on graphene/Cu are presented. It is found that for low cobalt thickness (0.02 nm - 0.06 nm) the Co forms islands distributed non-homogeneously which are strongly oxidized under exposure to air to form cobalt oxides. At greater thicknesses up to 2 nm the upper Co-layers are similarly oxidized whereas the lower layers contacting the graphene remain metallic. The measurements indicate a Co2+ oxidation state with no evidence of a 3+ state appearing at any Co thickness, consistent with CoO and Co[OH]2. The results show that thicker Co (2nm) coverage induces the formation of a protective oxide layer while providing the magnetic properties of Co nanoparticles.