Investigation on specific adsorption of hydrogen on lithium-doped mesoporous silica

This paper reports the synthesis, structure, and hydrogen adsorption property of Li-doped mesoporous silica (MPS) with a 2D hexagonal structure. The Li-doping is achieved by impregnation of the cylindrical mesopores with an ethanol solution of lithium chloride followed by heat treatment. Detailed characterization by solid-state NMR, TG-MS, and FT-IR suggests that, during the heat treatment, lithium chloride reacts with surface ethoxy groups (≡Si-OEt) to form ≡SiOLi groups, while ethyl chloride is released into the gas phase. The hydrogen uptake at 77 K and 1 atm increases from 0.68 wt% for the undoped MPS to 0.81 wt% for Li-doped MPS (Li-MPS). The isosteric heat of adsorption is 4.8 kJ mol⁻¹, which is consistent with the quantum chemistry calculation result (5.12 kJ mol⁻¹). The specific hydrogen adsorption on Li-MPS would be explained by the frontier orbital interaction between HOMO of hydrogen molecules and LUMO of ≡SiOLi. These findings provide an important insight into the development of hydrogen storage materials with specific adsorption sites.