CNTS-BASED MATERIALS FOR ENERGY APPLICATIONS

The global warming effect and its consequences give rise to sudden action towards the development of clean energy sources, that are fundamental to overcome the ever-growing energy demand, reducing damages to the climate and the natural environment of our planet. Due to their unique properties, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can be applied for these purposes. In this work different CNT morphologies and CNT composites are presented as good candidates as materials for energy applications. Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) of methane (CH4) on Cobalt-Molybdenum-Magnesium catalyst leads to the production of sponge like CNTs, here suggested as promising for H2 and CH4 storage. The influence of CH4 partial pressure (0.32–1.00 atm), during the synthesis, is studied on products’ morphology and a “double base” growth mechanism is proposed to account sponge like structures formation. Also CNTs-based hybrid materials are here proposed as promising candidates for energy storage systems in H2O/zeolite Adsorption Heat Pumps (AHPs). In order to overcome the poor thermal conductivity of the zeolite in H2O/zeolite AHP, SAPO-34 is hydrothermally synthesized over tetraethylammonium hydroxide (TEAOH) modified CNTs.