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

Abstract

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°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 × 104, respectively.