title: Self-Printing on Graphitic Nanosheets with Metal Borohydride Nanodots for Hydrogen Storage.
abstract: Although the synthesis of borohydride nanostructures is sufficiently established for advancement of hydrogen storage, obtaining ultrasmall (sub-10 nm) metal borohydride nanocrystals with excellent dispersibility is extremely challenging because of their high surface energy, exceedingly strong reducibility/hydrophilicity and complicated composition. Here, we demonstrate a mechanical-force-driven self-printing process that enables monodispersed (~6 nm) NaBH4 nanodots to uniformly anchor onto freshly-exfoliated graphitic nanosheets (GNs). Both mechanical-forces and borohydride interaction with GNs stimulate NaBH4 clusters intercalation/absorption into the graphite interlayers acting as a 'pen' for writing, which is accomplished by exfoliating GNs with the 'printed' borohydrides. These nano-NaBH4@GNs exhibit favorable thermodynamics (decrease in ∆H of ~45%), rapid kinetics (a greater than six-fold increase) and stable de-/re-hydrogenation that retains a high capacity (up to ~5 wt% for NaBH4) compared with those of micro-NaBH4. Our results are helpful in the scalable fabrication of zero-dimensional complex hydrides on two-dimensional supports with enhanced hydrogen storage for potential applications.
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Anhui University of Technology, Maanshan 243002, China.
authors.forename: Yongtao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Anhui University of Technology, Maanshan 243002, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoli
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Anhui University of Technology, Maanshan 243002, China.
authors.forename: Qingan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang