DFT Perspective of Hydrogen Storage on Porous Materials

In this chapter, the physisorption of hydrogen molecules in porous materials as possible hydrogen storage systems has been reviewed. Owing to the weak interaction between H2 molecules and the adsorbent, high storage capacities are typically reached only at cryogenic temperature. Different classes of porous materials possessing different structure and composition have been designed for hydrogen storage applications using computational methods and especially with the aid of DFT methods. The adsorption energies for hydrogen in different porous materials have been increases by the doping of light weight alkali and alkali earth metals. Ab initio molecular dynamics has been carried out to know the stability of the newly functionalized materials. GCMC methods have been employed to know the gravimetric and volumetric uptake percentage of the newly functionalized materials. Therefore, the combined approach provides a better understanding and designing new materials to operate at near room temperature for the reversible hydrogen storage application.