Promoted sulphated-zirconia catalysed hydrolysis of sodium tetrahydroborate

For the first time, solid acid sulphated-zirconia (ZrO2–SO42-, SZ) has been used as support of metal catalysts for hydrogen generation from catalytic hydrolysis of alkaline solution of sodium tetrahydroborate NaBH4. SZ was prepared according to an optimised one-step sol–gel method. Pt- or Ru-promoted SZs (Pt–SZ or Ru–SZ) were then got by wet impregnation. On the one hand, Pt–SZ was rather inefficient. On the other hand, Ru–SZ showed very promising hydrogen generation abilities with a hydrogen generation rate of ∼10 L(H2) min−1 g−1 of Ru. This performance is one of the best ones published in the literature.