Preparation and electrochemical hydrogen storage performance of sulfonated polysulfone (SPSU)

Hydrogen storage in solid-state materials is predicted from their tendency to adsorb-desorb hydrogen. The main challenge in the hydrogen storage is to find a new class of materials that can reversibly store hydrogen at high rates under reasonable temperature, pressure and cost conditions. Polymeric materials have recently come to the fore of hydrogen storage technologies because of their high surface area, reversible capacity, and thermo-mechanical stabilities. Here, we report, for the first time, novel hydrogen storage polymer based on sulfonated polysulfone (SPSU) of above 650 mAh/g (~2.3 wt% H) of discharge capacity. Primarily, the SPSU have polymerized from Polysulfone (PSU) in the presence of chlorosulfonic acid (ClSO3H). The spectroscopic and elemental analyses confirm the successful sulfonation of PSU. The charge-discharge efficiency of this system exhibits stable sequences with around 97% efficiency, comparable with many benchmark commercial batteries. The results clearly emphasise that the SPSU can be individually assigned as a potential host for hydrogen sorption. Our work will promote the development of low-cost solid-state conductive polymer, as a host for hydrogen sorption.