Abstract
Hydrogen is regarded as a promising energy carrier to substitute fossil fuels. However, storing hydrogen with high density remains a challenge. NaBH4 is a potential hydrogen storage material due to its high gravimetric hydrogen density (10.8 mass%), but the hydrogen kinetic and thermodynamic properties of NaBH4 are poor against the application needs. Nanosizing is an effective strategy to improve the hydrogen properties of NaBH4. In this context, we report on the direct synthesis of NaBH4 nanoparticles (~6–260 nm) from the NaOCH3 precursor. The hydrogen desorption properties of such nanoparticles are reported as well as experimental conditions that lead to the synthesis of (Na2B12H12) free NaBH4 nanoparticles.
Highlights
Sodium borohydride (NaBH4 ) has attracted significant interest as a potential hydrogen storage material, owing to its high hydrogen gravimetric capacity (10.8 mass%) [1,2]
We report on the development of two routes for making isolated NaBH4 nanoparticles through the reaction of NaOCH3 with B2 H6 gas according to reaction (3): 3NaOCH3 + 2B2 H6 → 3NaBH4 + B(OCH3 )3 (3)
4c and 4d) and 12 nm (NaBH4-SUG8.5, Figure 4e, 4f, and NaBH4-SUG16.9, Figure 4g, 4h). This is slightly smaller than the particle size of NaOCH3 (Figure 4a and 4b), and this reduction in particle the particle size and synthesize isolated NaBH4 nanoparticles, we investigated the possibility to first synthesize NaOCH3 nanoparticles by solvent evaporation method, and suspended these NaOCH3 nanoparticles in hexane with octadecylamine as a stabilizer to retain the morphology during reaction with B2 H6
Summary
Sodium borohydride (NaBH4 ) has attracted significant interest as a potential hydrogen storage material, owing to its high hydrogen gravimetric capacity (10.8 mass%) [1,2]. In order to enhance the hydrogen storage properties of NaBH4 , the approach of nanosizing, i.e., reduction of particle size below 100 nm, has proven to lead to some improvements in the thermodynamics and kinetics. This is believed to result from several factors including an increase in the specific surface area and shorter hydrogen diffusion paths [4,5]. An alternative method is through the synthesis of isolated nanoparticles and their stabilization as core-shell nanostructures [3,9] To date, this approach is significantly limited by the lack of synthetic methods for readily making NaBH4 nanoparticles of controlled properties
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