The influence of carbon nanomaterials on catalytic decomposition of formic acid

Abstract

Experimental studies were focused on decomposition of formic acid over carbon nanofibers (CNF) and carbon nanotubes (CNT) to produce pure hydrogen. These carbon materials were shown to provide decomposition of formic acid to form preferably hydrogen and carbon dioxide. It was established that structural features of carbon nanomaterials affect their activity in the decomposition of formic acid. The specific catalytic activity of CNF (ini) is at least twice as high as that of CNT (ini). The treatment of CNF (NaOH) with an alkali solution of NaOH is shown to improve noticeably both activity and selectivity of the catalytic decomposition of formic acid. The synthesized catalysts were characterized using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and adsorption. It was shown by XPS that the alkali treatment of CNF results in the appearance of C–O–Na fragments on the carbon surface.