Hydrogen Generation from Sodium Borohydride Hydrolysis with a Cu-Co-Based Catalyst: A Kinetic Study

摘要

In the present work, Cu-Co-supported catalysts were tested for hydrogen generation from the hydrolysis reaction of an alkaline sodium borohydride solution. Cu-Co catalysts were prepared by the chemical reduction with NaBH4 and characterized with scanning electron microscope. The effect of Cu-Co ratio was investigated. The results suggested that the optimal mixture percentage of Cu-Co catalyst was 60: 40; excessive Cu resulted in poor catalytic activity. The reactions were carried out at temperatures of 20, 30, 40, and 50 degrees C. The experimental data was fitted to the nth-order kinetic models. The results indicate that the nth-order model gives a reasonable description of the hydrogen generation rate over all of the temperature range. The activation energy and pre-exponential factor of the nth-order reaction model were obtained as 42.66 kJ mol(-1) and 1.21 x 10(4), respectively.