Platinum-decorated graphene: Experimental insight into growth mechanisms and hydrogen adsorption properties

The potential of graphene for hydrogen storage, coupled with the established role of Platinum as a catalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction and the spillover effect, makes Pt-functionalized graphene a promising candidate for near-ambient hydrogen storage. This paper focuses on examining the process of Pt cluster formation on epitaxial graphene and assesses the suitability of the system as hydrogen storage material. Scanning tunneling microscopy unveils two primary pathways for Pt cluster growth. In the initial phase, up to ~1 ML of Pt coverage, Pt tends to randomly disperse and cover the graphene surface, while the cluster height remains essentially unchanged. Beyond a coverage of 3 ML, the nucleation of new layers on existing clusters becomes predominant. Then, the clusters mainly grow in height. Thermal desorption spectroscopy on hydrogenated Pt-decorated graphene reveals the presence of multiple hydrogen adsorption mechanisms, manifested as two Gaussian peaks superimposed on a linearly increasing background. We attribute the first peak at 150°C to hydrogen physisorbed on the surface of Pt clusters. The second peak at 430°C is attributed to chemisorption of hydrogen on the surface of the clusters, while the linearly increasing background is assigned to hydrogen bonded in the bulk of the Pt clusters. These measurements demonstrate the ability of Pt-functionalized graphene to store molecular hydrogen at temperatures that are high enough for stable hydrogen binding at room temperature.