Optimization of hydrogen uptake in Ag–CNTs electrodes with charge–discharge cyclic currents

Electrochemical storage of hydrogen in Ag–CNTs (silver and carbon nanotubes) electrodes has been studied by potentiostat/galvanostat method. Foamed silver has been employed as a mattress for the CNTs and it caused better connections between CNTs and the silver. Therefore the enhancements in the hydrogen storage capacities have been justified. Acidic and thermal methods have been used for purifying the CNTs and the outputs have been characterized by XRD and Raman spectroscopy. It has been observed that in cyclic charge and discharge (C&D) procedures the amount of stored hydrogen in the electrodes (the discharge capacity) is very sensitive to the cyclic regulated currents and it is shown that the optimum value is about 326 mA h/g at 9 mA. This optimization can be attributed to two competitive phenomena: (i) re-alignment of the CNTs, and (ii) oxidation of the electrode's surface.