Investigation into the Catalytic ability of Fibrillar Co-Y-B Catalyst in Hydrogen Production from Hydrolysis of Sodium Borohydride

摘要

The hydrolysis reaction of sodium borohydride (NaBH_4) can generate highly pure hydrogen. In this paper, the Co-Y-B catalyst is prepared using the simple chemical reduction method. Its catalytic reactivity is investigated for different NaBH_4 concentrations, NaOH concentrations, the catalyst amounts and the reacting temperatures. When the Y/(Co+Y) mole ratio in catalyst arrives at 40%, the catalysts show the best catalytic ability. There is an optimum range, around 8 wt.% for NaBH_4 concentration and also 8 wt.% for NaOH concentration, respectively, in which the hydrogen generation rate performed best. Both the large catalyst amount and the high reacting temperature are beneficial to promote the hydrogen generation rate. Structural characterizations of the fibrillar catalysts are carried out in SEM and XRD analysis. The value of activation energy for the hydrogen generation process is calculated to be 48.02 kJ/mol and it compares favorably with some other previously reported values.