INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYDROGEN ENERGY, vol.44, no.34, pp.18903-18914, 2019 (SCI-Expanded)
Hydrogen adsorption and desorption over Ru/SiO2 and Ru/Vulcan are investigated in terms of hydrogen storage and release characteristics by both dynamic and static experiments. Ru particle dispersions as a function of metal loading were determined by HR-TEM and volumetric chemisorption experiments. Vulcan was more accommodating for spillover hydrogen than SiO2. High Ru dispersions, i.e., small particle sizes, favored the amount of hydrogen spillover to Vulcan, as revealed by temperature programmed desorption (TPD) of hydrogen. TPD of hydrogen under He flow experiments over Ru/SiO2 and Ru/Vulcan materials revealed a low temperature process (up to 200 °C) attributed to desorption of weakly bound hydrogen from Ru metal surface. A high temperature process (above 450 °C) was attributed to diffusion of hydrogen from the support to the Ru particle and desorption at the Ru sites. Hydrogen adsorbs strongly on Ru metal, as indicated by the initial heats of H2 adsorption measured as 100 kJ/mol over 1 wt% Ru/Vulcan by adsorption calorimetry. At higher coverages, heat of adsorption of hydrogen was measured as 10 kJ/mol. Low heat of adsorption of hydrogen at high coverages indicate multilayer weak adsorption of hydrogen over the storage material, which can desorb at lower temperatures.