Nanomechanics and modelling of hydrogen stored carbon nanotubes under compression for PEM fuel cell applications

Compressive strength of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) filled with hydrogen molecules is analysed in this work utilising molecular dynamics simulation. Understanding mechanical characteristics of SWCNTs with hydrogen interactions are urgently important for providing solid groundwork to design robust and effective on-board hydrogen storage systems for proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). This study analyses impact of SWNCTs’ geometry, weight percentage of hydrogen storage, temperature variation and vacancy defects. It is obtained that effect of hydrogen storage increases compressive resistance of SWCNTs. Furthermore, temperature increase and presence of defects negatively impacts compressive strength of SWCNTs. The compressive resistance of hydrogen stored SWCNTs were also found to depend on inter-molecular spacing of hydrogen molecules. It is expected that this work could provide important fundamentals in understanding mechanical behaviour of hydrogen stored SWNCTs subjected to compression that could assist in the development of effective on-board hydrogen storage systems for fuel cells.