A study on electrochemical hydrogen storage performance of bituminous-derived mesoporous carbon/zinc oxide nanocomposite

For the first time, bituminous-based mesoporous carbon/zinc oxide (BMC/ZnO) nanocomposite was synthesized and its hydrogen storage capacity was investigated. At first, ZnO nanoparticles were prepared via the homogeneous precipitation technique using green tea extract as a participant agent. In the second step, mesoporous carbon was made from bituminous coal; then, BMC/ZnO nanocomposite was prepared with a facile technique. Detailed investigation of structural and physical properties of the prepared BMC/ZnO nanocomposite was conducted using X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR). Hydrogen storage capacity of produced nanocomposite was inspected using the chronopotentiometry technique. As a result, BMC/ZnO nanocomposite as storage material shows a high electrochemical hydrogen storage equal to 4648 mAh/g. The well-structured, easily prepared and high hydrogen storage performance BMC/ZnO nanocomposite offers hopeful potential to support progressive systems of hydrogen storage.