Improvement of accuracy for determination of isosteric heat of hydrogen adsorption

Abstract

Isosteric heat of hydrogen adsorption is one of the most important parameters required to describe solid-state hydrogen storage systems. Typically, it is calculated from adsorption isotherms measured at 77K (liquid N2) and 87K (liquid Ar). This simple calculation, however, results in a high degree of uncertainty due to the small temperature range. Therefore, the original Sievert type setup is upgraded using a heating and cooling device to regulate the wide sample temperature. This upgraded setup allows a wide temperature range for isotherms (77K~ 117K) providing a minimized uncertainty (error) of measurement for adsorption enthalpy calculation and yielding reliable results. To this end, we measure the isosteric heats of hydrogen adsorption of two prototypical samples: Activated carbon and metal-organic frameworks (e.g. MIL-53), and compared the small temperature range (77~87K) to the wide one (77K~ 117K).