Hydrogen uptake of multiwalled carbon nanotubes decorated with Pt–Pd alloy using thermal vapour deposition method

Abstract Hydrogen uptake of Pt–Pd alloy decorated MWCNTs was performed under ambient temperature and moderate pressures. Nanocrystalline alloy is coated on the MWCNTs via thermal vapour deposition (TVD) method. The size of the Pt–Pd alloy decorated by TVD on MWCNTs is 5 nm. The maximum reversible hydrogen storage exhibited by nanocomposite, measured at 298 K and pressure of 20 atm is found to be ∼2.0 wt.%, which is nearly 3 times more as compared to pristine CNTs performed under similar experimental conditions. The improvement of hydrogen storage in coated sample as compared to pristine CNTs is due to the spillover of physisorbed hydrogen from the alloy nanoparticles to the CNTs.