Peat-Derived ZnCl 2 -Activated Ultramicroporous Carbon Materials for Hydrogen Adsorption.

Highly microporous adsorbents have been under considerable scrutiny for efficient adsorptive storage of H 2 . Of specific interest are sustainable, chemically activated, microporous carbon adsorbents, especially from renewable and organic precursor materials. In this article, six peat-derived microporous carbon materials were synthesized by chemical activation with ZnCl 2 . N 2 and CO 2 gas adsorption data were measured and simultaneously fitted with the 2D-NLDFT-HS model. Thus, based on the obtained results, the use of a low ratio of ZnCl 2 for chemical activation of peat-derived carbon yields highly ultramicroporous carbons which are able to adsorb up to 83% of the maximal adsorbed amount of adsorbed H 2 already at 1 bar at 77 K. This is accompanied by the high ratio of micropores, 99%, even at high specific surface area of 1260 m 2 g -1 , exhibited by the peat-derived carbon activated at 973 K using a 1:2 ZnCl 2 to peat mass ratio. These results show the potential of using low concentrations of ZnCl 2 as an activating agent to synthesize highly ultramicroporous carbon materials with suitable pore characteristics for the efficient low-pressure adsorption of H 2 .