Catalytic activity improvement of Ni/SnO2 nanoparticles dispersed on nickel alloy for hydrogen generation

The activity of Ni3Sn powder after oxidation-reduction treatment was investigated for producing hydrogen from methanol under different conditions. The treated Ni3Sn powder, especially that the Ni3Sn oxidized at higher temperature showed a much higher activity than non-treated Ni3Sn; compared to Ni3Sn oxidized at 1073 K, Ni3Sn oxidized at 1373 K showed 10 times higher H2 and CO generation rates, but similar low CO2 and CH4 generation rates. The activity of treated Ni3Sn significantly increased with increasing oxidation temperature and decreasing reduction temperature. The activity improvement of treated Ni3Sn powder was attributed to the formation of fine nanostructured Ni/SnO2 particles, which were supposed to be the cause of the improved activity of Ni3Sn.