Highly Porous Carbon from Microalga, Chlorella Vulgaris, as an Electrochemical Hydrogen Storage Material

• Published in: Journal of the Electrochemical Society Vol. 167; no. 12; pp. 120525 - 120531
• Main Authors: Seifi, Hooman, Masoum, Saeed, Hosseini Tafreshi, Seyed Ali, Seifi, Soodabe, Jafari, Seyed Mostafa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing 25.08.2020
• Subjects: Biomass; Chlorella vulgaris; Electrochemical hydrogen storage; Microalga; Porous carbon; Renewable energy
• ISSN: 0013-4651; 1945-7111; 1945-7111
• DOI: 10.1149/1945-7111/abaf73

Chlorella Vulgaris, as a well-known green microalga is considered as a reliable biomass source with vast biotechnological potential to produce various high-performance products. In the present study, porous carbon with a specific surface area was produced via a hydrothermal technique. The investigated materials were characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The electrochemical hydrogen storage (EHS) capacity of the product was investigated by a three-electrode system (chronopotentiometry) in 6 M KOH electrolyte. The microalga-based porous carbons showed a good electrochemical hydrogen storage capacity equal to 1040 mAh g−1 ( 3.9 wt%) after 40 cycles. This great capacity principally is due to the porous structure (distributions of pore size is mesoporous), high surface area (718 m2 g−1), and proper surface functional groups (C−OH, C-O-S and COO−) of prepared microalga-based porous carbons. These results suggested that the microalgal biomass could be successfully applied in electrochemical storage of hydrogen.