Hydrogen Storage in Graphene-Based Materials: Efforts Towards Enhanced Hydrogen Absorption

The discovery in 2004 that graphene can be produced by micromechanical exfoliation brought forth a plethora of unique electronic, mechanical, thermal and optical properties of this first stable two dimensional (2-D) material ever isolated, which afforded the Nobel Prize to Andrei Geim and Konstantin Novoselov in 2010. One of the peculiarities of graphene is its extremely high specific surface area, which in combination with its low weight, robustness and chemical inertness places it among the most suitable materials for hydrogen storage devices. In this review we discuss the experimental and theoretical approaches applied so far to harness graphene and its derivatives as main building blocks for hydrogen uptake and storage; the potential of each approach for future applications in the hydrogen economy will also be examined.