Hydrogen Generation from Hydrolysis of Sodium Borohydride Using Nanosized NiB Amorphous Alloy Catalysts

Abstract

Generation of hydrogen by sodium borohydride solution had attracted lots of attention. A serial of nanosized NiB catalysts were prepared using the chemical reduction method through introducing AlCl3 into the preparation. Catalytic performance of NiB catalysts were investigated in the hydrolysis of alkaline NaBH4 solution. The catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2 adsorption, Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results showed that NiB catalysts possessed amorphous alloy structure, and the particle size could be adjusted by the AlCl3 amount. Catalytic performance showed that NiB catalyst with smaller particle size had much higher activity. The NiB catalyst also displayed high stability, the catalytic activity could retain about 84% of its initial value after four cycles.