Hydrogen generation from hydrolysis of sodium borohydride using Ni–Ru nanocomposite as catalysts

Magnetic nickel–ruthenium based catalysts on resin beads for hydrogen generation from alkaline NaBH4 solutions were synthesized with combined methods of chemical reduction and electroless deposition. Factors, such as solution temperature, NaBH4 loadings, and NaOH concentration, on performance of these catalysts on hydrogen production from alkaline NaBH4 solutions were investigated. Furthermore, characteristics of these nickel–ruthenium based catalysts were carried out by using various instruments, such as SEM/EDS, XPS, SQUID VSM and BET. These catalysts can be easily recycled from spent NaBH4 solution with permanent magnets owing to their intrinsic soft ferromagnetism and, therefore, reducing the operation cost of the hydrogen generation process. A rate of hydrogen evolution as high as ca. 400 mL min−1 g−1 could be reached at 35 °C in 10 wt% NaBH4 solution containing 5 wt% NaOH using Ni–Ru/50WX8 catalysts. Activation energy of hydrogen generation using such catalysts is estimated at 52.73 kJ mol−1.