Hydrogenation of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Towards the development of a useful mechanism for hydrogen storage, we have studied the hydrogenation of single-walled carbon nanotubes with atomic hydrogen using core-level photoelectron spectroscopy and x-ray absorption spectroscopy. We find that atomic hydrogen creates C-H bonds with the carbon atoms in the nanotube walls, and such C-H bonds can be completely broken by heating to 600 °C. We demonstrate approximately $65\pm 15\mathrm{at}\%$ hydrogenation of carbon atoms in the single-walled carbon nanotubes, which is equivalent to $5.1\pm 1.2\mathrm{\text{wt}}\%$ hydrogen capacity. We also show that the hydrogenation is a reversible process.