Preparation of Ag@PNCMs nanocomposite as an effective catalyst for hydrogen generation from hydrolysis of sodium borohydride

Abstract

Polyacrylonitrile nanofiber composite membranes loaded with silver nanoparticles (Ag@PNCMs) were synthesized by electrospinning. The synthesis parameters were optimized using response surface methodology. The structure and morphology of the composite were characterized by XRD, SEM-EDX, and BET analysis. The catalytic activities of Ag@PNCMs for NaBH4 hydrolysis reaction were systematically investigated under different reaction conditions including temperature, mass percent of NaBH4 and catalyst dosage. Ag@PNCMs exhibited reasonable catalytic activity in terms of hydrogen generation rate (HGR) with 2269 mL.g−1.min−1 and comparatively low activation energy (52.13 KJ.mol−1) together with good reusability that retained up to 83.49% of its initial catalytic activity after five-time consecutive use. The simple preparation process with low cost makes the composite as a candidate promising commercial catalyst for hydrolysis of NaBH4 hydrogen generation.