Effect of Co loading on the hydrogen storage characteristics of hollow glass microspheres (HGMs)

•Cobalt loaded hollow glass microspheres were synthesized using flame spheroidisation.•Effect of cobalt loading on HGMs for hydrogen adsorption was investigated.•The optimum cobalt loading was found to be 2%.•The hydrogen storage capacity found to be 2.32 wt% for HACo2 at 200 °C and 10 bar.

The use of hydrogen as a fuel either direct combustion in an IC engine or for power generation in fuel cells continues to be a topic of significant interest. Developing and popularizing fuel cells for vehicular or other stationary applications depends upon the availability of safe and reliable hydrogen storage method. The greatest challenge as of now in this regard is the production of a light weight, nontoxic and easily transportable material which can store hydrogen. World-wide research is being conducted on developing newer materials for hydrogen storage. Hollow glass microspheres (HGMs) can be considered to be a potential hydrogen carrier which can store and deliver hydrogen for energy release applications. In this paper, we are reporting the preparation and characterization of cobalt loaded HGMs from amber glass powder for hydrogen storage applications. The feed glass powder with different percentage of cobalt loading was prepared by soaking and drying the feed glass powder in required amount of cobalt nitrate hexahydrate solution. Further, the dried feed glass powder was flame spheroidised to get cobalt loaded HGMs. Characterizations of all the HGMs samples were done using SEM, FTIR and XRD techniques. Hydrogen adsorptions on all the samples were done for 10 bar pressure at room temperature and 200 °C for 5 h. The results showed that the hydrogen adsorption capacity on these samples increased with increase in cobalt wt% from 0.2 to 2.0%. The hydrogen storage capacity of HACo2 was found to 2.32 wt% for 10 bar pressure at 200 °C.