Investigation on salisylaldimine-Ni complex catalyst as an alternative to increasing the performance of catalytic hydrolysis of sodium borohydride

In this study, 5-amino-2, 4-dichlorophenol-3, 5-ditertbutylsalisylaldimine-Ni complex catalyst is synthesised and used as an alternative to previous studies to produce hydrogen from hydrolysis of sodium borohydride. The resulting complex catalyst is characterised by XRD, XPS, SEM, FT-IR and BET surface area analyses. Experimental works are carried out at 30 °C with 2% NaBH4, 7% NaOH and 5 mg of catalyst. The maximum hydrogen production rate from hydrolysis of sodium borohydride with nickel-based complex catalyst compared to the pure nickel catalyst is increased from 772 ml min−1g−1 to 2240 ml min−1g−1 by an increase of 190%. At the same time, the hydrolysis reaction with pure nickel catalyst is completed in 145 min while the hydrolysis reaction with nickel-based complex catalyst is completed in 50 min. The activation energy of this hydrolysis reaction was calculated as 18.16 kJ mol−1. This work also includes kinetic information for the hydrolysis of NaBH4.The reusability of the nickel-based complex catalyst used in this study has also been studied. The nickel-based complex catalyst is maintained the activity of 72% after the sixth use, compared to the first catalytic use.