Hydrogen Absorption at Room Temperature in Nanoscale Titanium Benzene Complexes

In this letter we report the first room temperature gravimetric measurements of hydrogen absorption in nanoscale titanium-benzene complexes formed by laser ablation in a benzene atmosphere in a UHV chamber. We are able to obtain a 6% by weight absorption as predicted by recent density functional theory based calculations under the conditions of low benzene pressure (35 milli-torr) and for sub-monolayer samples. For samples synthesized under higher benzene pressures we find a systematic degradation of the hydrogen absorption.