Hydrogen adsorption studies of engineered and chemically modified activated carbons

My research focuses on the production of boron-doped activated carbons and the evaluation of their adsorption and structural characteristics. Boron-doped activated carbons have been produced using a process involving the pyrolysis of decaborane (B10H14) and subsequent high-temperature annealing. Presented here is a systematic study of the undoped activated carbon precursor on the effect of activation temperature and KOH:C on pore structure. A second study of the effect of different boron-doping processes on the samples’ structure, hydrogen sorption, and surface chemistry is presented. Room temperature hydrogen adsorption experiments show a 20% increase in the hydrogen excess adsorption per surface area compared to the undoped material. Experimentally determined adsorption enthalpies showed that the boron-doped activated carbon had an enthalpy of ~9-10 kJ/mol compared to 6 kJ/mol for the undoped precursor.