Laser-assisted synthesis of Au NPs on MgO/chitosan: Applications in electrochemical hydrogen storage

Abstract

Hydrogen with high energy density is an environmental alternative to fossil fuels which can respond to the demand for energy considering environmental conditions. It can be stored on porous materials employing physical interaction (e.g. adsorption process). The H2 storage capacity of materials can be evaluated through electrochemical methods. Therefore, a fast and straightforward approach was employed to fabricate magnesium oxide/chitosan/Au nanoparticles (MgO/CS/Au) nanocomposites with porous structure for electrochemical hydrogen storage. Herein, laser ablation in water as a fast and green method was utilized to obtain Au nanoparticles (Au NPs). The obtained Au NPs were loaded on MgO/CS nanocomposite through physical mixing. Structural and morphological investigation of nanocomposites display spherically shaped Au NPs with a diameter of 49–58 nm agglomerated on the MgO/CS. Drop casting, the fast and cost-effective method was deployed to deposit the benign, and reusable MgO/CS/Au-x (x is Au NPs weight percentage of 1, 3 and 5 wt.%) nanocomposites on stainless steel mesh and their electrochemical hydrogen storage were measured by cyclic voltammetry (CV), indicating good stability and significant hydrogen storage capacity (28 C/g) after 300 CV scans for MgO/CS/Au-1 sample.