title: Chemical grafting of Co9S8onto C60for hydrogen spillover and storage.
abstract: Metal modified C60is considered to be a potential hydrogen storage medium due to its high theoretical capacity. Research interest is growing in various hybrid inorganic compounds-C60. While the design and synthesis of a novel hybrid inorganic compound-C60is difficult to attain, it has been theorized that the atomic hydrogen could transfer from the inorganic compound to the adjacent C60surfaces via spillover and surface diffusion. Here, as a proof of concept experiment, we graft Co9S8onto C60via a facile high energy ball milling process. The Raman, XPS, XRD, TEM, HTEM and EELS measurements have been conducted to evaluate the composition and structure of the pizza-like hybrid material. In addition, the electrochemical measurements and calculated results demonstrate that the chemical "bridges" (C-S bonds) between these two materials enhance the binding strength and, hence, facilitate the hydriding reaction of C60during the hydrogen storage process. As a result, an increased hydrogen storage capacity of 4.03 wt% is achieved, along with a favorable cycling stability of ∼80% after 50 cycles. Excluding the direct hydrogen storage contribution from Co9S8in the hybrid paper, the hydrogen storage ability of C60was enhanced by 5.9× through the hydriding reaction caused by the Co9S8modifier. Based on these experimental measurements and theoretical calculations, the unique chemical structure reported here could potentially inspire other C60-based advanced hybrids.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang 150001, PR China. wuxiaohong@hit.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Jiahuang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jian
authors.forename: Songtao
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Xiaohong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Guohua
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Boyu
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liu