Hydrolysis of sodium borohydride solutions both in the presence of Ni–B catalyst and in the case of microwave application

Abstract

In this study, the nickel boron (Ni–B) catalyst was studied in the microwave environment for hydrogen production from the hydrolysis of a sodium borohydride solution to release H2. The catalytic activity of the Ni–B catalyst was measured by hydrogen production from the hydrolysis of sodium borohydride. The catalytic properties of the Ni–B catalyst in the microwave medium were examined by considering parameters such as NaOH concentration, NaBH4 concentration, catalyst amount, temperature, and microwave power. Thus, the results obtained from the experiments carried out with Ni–B catalyst both in non-microwave and microwave media were compared. In the experiments, under microwave irradiation, the best result was the release of hydrogen gas from the Ni–B catalyst by applying 100 W of microwave energy at 40 °C. Activation energy values were calculated using the reaction rate constants obtained at different temperatures in the nth order kinetic model and the Langmuir - Hinshelwood model.