Fundamental Open Questions on Engineering of “Super” Hydrogen Sorption in Graphite Nanofibers: Relevance for Clean Energy Applications

Abstract

Herein, some fundamental open questions on engineering of “super” hydrogen sorption (storage) in carbonaceous nanomaterials are considered, namely: 1) on thermodynamic stability and related characteristics of some hydrogenated graphene layers nanostructures: relevance to the hydrogen storage problem; 2) determination of thermodynamic characteristics of graphene hydrides; 3) a treatment and interpretation of some recent STM, STS, HREELS/LEED, PES, ARPS and Raman spectroscopy data on hydrogensorbtion with epitaxial graphenes; 4) on the physics of intercalation of hydrogen into surface graphene-like nanoblisters in pyrolytic graphite and epitaxial graphenes; 5) on the physics of the elastic and plastic deformation of graphene walls in hydrogenated graphite nanofibers; 6) on the physics of engineering of “super” hydrogen sorption (storage) in carbonaceous nanomaterials, in the light of analysis of the Rodriguez-Baker extraordinary data and some others. These fundamental open questions may be solved within several years.