A comparative study of hydrogen generation by reaction of ball milled mixture of magnesium powder with two water-soluble salts (NaCl and KCl) in hot water

Abstract

Magnesium powder was ball milled with different weight percentages of NaCl and KCl. These mixtures were added to hot water (80 °C) and the hydrogen generation rate was measured. The results show that the hydrogen generation rate increased with an increase of the presence of both salts. Moreover, increase of the time of milling increased the hydrogen generation rate. The structure of magnesium salt mixtures was further investigated using SEM and EDS and it was demonstrated that higher hydrogen generation rate is correlated with the degree of penetration of the salt into magnesium particles. In addition, we determined that for the 15 h milled composite samples, Mg–KCl mixture generates 200 mL more hydrogen than Mg–NaCl for every 1 g Mg used. These results show that KCl salt addition is promising for hydrogen generation in presented experimental system.