Polyaspartic Acid–Based Porous Carbon–Loaded Nickel Metal and Its Application to Hydrogen Adsorption

Abstract

Hydrogen energy plays an important role as a clean, renewable resource in replacing traditional fossil energy sources, and in this study, a polyaspartic acid (PASP) porous carbon loaded with metallic nickel was prepared for hydrogen storage. The PASP porous carbon loaded with nickel metal was successfully prepared by high-temperature pyrolysis and metal-solution impregnation using homemade PASP hydrogels as raw material. Compared to ordinary carbon materials, the addition of K⁺ as a porogenic agent to the material before carbon formation makes its pore structure rich and adjustable. In addition, nickel as an active site optimizes the overall electronic structure and surface properties of the material, which together increase the gas adsorption capacity. The materials of PASP, PASP porous carbon, and PASP porous carbon loaded with metallic nickel were also characterized by FTIR, SEM, BET, TEM, EDS, XRD, and XPS, and finally applied to hydrogen adsorption. The results show that C-PASP-50% has the best adsorption effect on hydrogen with different degrees of cross-linking, and the adsorption capacity can reach 126.49 cm³/g. The adsorption capacity increases significantly after loading metal nickel, and the adsorption capacity of C-PASP-Ni50% reaches 273.03 cm³/g.