Oxalic Acid Promoted Hydrolysis of Sodium Borohydride for Transition Metal Free Hydrogen Generation

Abstract

We reported a low cost, high efficiency hydrogen generation method from NaBH4 hydrolysis promoted by oxalic acid. NaBH4 and H2C2O4 were premixed and hydrogen generation was initiated by adding water into the solid mixture. H2C2O4 was selected as the acid promotor due to its solid state and low mass per proton. The effect of reactant ratio on the hydrogen yield and hydrogen storage density was investigated. With optimized reactant ratio, high gravimetric hydrogen storage up to 4.4wt% based on all the reactants can be achieved with excellent hydrogen generation kinetics.