Hydrolysis hydrogen generation behavior of Mg10Ni10Ce alloy catalytic modified by isomeric carbon materials

Abstract

Hydrolysis hydrogen generation from Mg-based alloys is considered as a potential energy carrier for global low-carbon and growing energy challenges. At present, it is a key problem to explore an efficient modification method for Mg-based alloys to obtain rapid initial hydrolysis kinetics and high H2 yield in short time. In this work, carbon-based isomeric catalysts were creatively employed to activate Mg10Ni10Ce alloy. Based on the rapid initial hydrolysis kinetics, the effects of carbon nanostructured catalysts on the hydrogen production of Mg10Ni10Ce were studied. Herein, the catalytically modified Mg10Ni10Ce samples with point-like carbon black (SP), one-dimensional tubular carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and two-dimensional layered graphite (GP) are simply prepared by short-time high-energy ball milling process. Due to the significant structural characteristics, the catalytically modified Mg10Ni10Ce samples have higher H2 yields at the initial hydrolysis stage, Mg10Ni10Ce-SP, Mg10Ni10Ce-CNTs and Mg10Ni10Ce-GP samples are 17.3%, 25.2% and 36.2% at 313 K for 30 s, which are higher than that of Mg10Ni10Ce (10.4%). The above work provides an effective strategy for hydrogen production by modifying Mg-based alloys with nanostructured catalysts, and lays a foundation for the application of portable hydrogen production devices.