Microwave treatment and fluorine addition on Co-B catalyst to improve the hydrogen production rate

Abstract

In this paper, microwave heating treatment process and fluorine addition over Co-B-F catalyst was applied to produce hydrogen via the hydrolysis of NaBH4. The effects of microwave heating treatment time, microwave heating treatment power, microwave inert gases and temperature on the catalyst were studied. X-ray absorption spectrometer, scanning electron microscopy coupled to energy-dispersive spectroscopy, nitrogen adsorption analyzer and infrared spectrometer were performed for the chemical characterization of the catalysts. It was found that Co-B-F and microwave-treated Co-B-F catalysts exhibited excellent catalytic activity to produce hydrogen. The rates of the maximum hydrogen production for untreated and microwave-treated Co-B-F catalysts are 1868 and 3400 mL/g/min, respectively.