Titanosilicate-sepiolite hybrid nanoarchitectures for hydrogen technologies applications

This work represents a first contribution on the synthesis of nanoarchitectured materials based on layered titanosilicates of the JDF-L1 type growth on sepiolite fibrous clay. It has been observed that the main structural and textural characteristics of the resulting materials depend on the experimental procedures applied to obtain the starting water dispersions of sepiolite. The best stable dispersions, in the form of homogeneous gels obtained by ultrasonication, drive to titanosilicate-sepiolite heterostructures provided of elevated specific surface area. These materials can be prepared as monoliths that are able to uptake H2 molecules at ambient temperature under pressure of 4 MPa. The adopted synthetic conditions produce a partial dissolution of the sepiolite silicate losing its characteristic microporosity associated with the structural nanopores of this silicate.