Ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS), work function measurements, low energy electron diffraction (LEED) and scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) have been used to study the adsorption and desorption of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl]imide, [C(2)C(1)Im][Tf(2)N], on the (1×2) clean surface reconstruction of Au(110) in the temperature range 100-674 K. The ionic liquid adsorbed without decomposition, and desorbed without leaving any residue on the surface. For adsorption at room temperature a monolayer of strongly bound ionic liquid was formed with four interface states visible in UP spectra. STM at 100 K showed that the monolayer consisted of well-ordered rows of adsorbed ionic liquid aligned parallel to the close packed rows of surface gold atoms (the [110] direction) with a separation of ×2 (the same as the clean surface reconstruction) between the rows in the orthogonal [001] direction. Multilayer adsorption at room temperature occurred by droplet formation followed by smoothing of the droplets to a layered morphology with time. Heating caused multilayer desorption at temperatures in the 363-383 K range, followed by partial monolayer desorption at 548 K to produce a Au(110)-(1×3) reconstructed surface with sub-monolayer domains of ionic liquid. Desorption of the remaining ionic liquid at 600 K caused the gold surface to reconstruct back to the clean (1×2) reconstruction.

Activation of carbide-derived carbon (CDC) with KOH generates superactivated carbons with high surface area (up to 2800 m 2 g À1 ). The KOH activation, at a CDC/KOH weight ratio of 1 : 4, was performed at between 600 and 900 C. Despite a 50% increase in porosity, the activated carbons retain a microporous nature with typically 90% of their surface area and 80% of their pore volume arising from micropores. The small micropores (8-12 A) of the CDC are retained in the activated carbons, along with the generation of a greater proportion of new 20A pores. The size of the larger pores increases slightly at higher activation temperature. The activated carbons exhibit an enhancement of up to 63% in hydrogen uptake from 3.8 wt% for the CDC to 6.2 wt% at À196 C and 20 bar. At 1 bar the superactivated CDC carbons store 2.7 wt% hydrogen, which is amongst the highest values ever reported for activated carbon. An increase in surface oxygen concentration also contributes to the enhanced hydrogen uptake. For example, activation at 600 C does not alter the textural properties, but enhances hydrogen uptake by ca. 30% compared to the CDC due to an apparent higher surface oxygen concentration.