Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
7720825 | International Journal of Hydrogen Energy | 2014 | 11 Pages |
Abstract
Solution combustion synthesized (SCS) cobalt oxide (Co3O4) powder has been studied as a catalyst precursor for the hydrolysis of sodium borohydride (NaBH4). Synthesis is completed in less than two minutes and results indicate SCS is capable of reproducibly synthesizing 98.5-99.5% pure Co3O4 nano-foam materials. SCS materials demonstrate an as-synthesized specific surface area of 24 m2 gâ1, a crystallite size of 15.5 nm, and fine surface structures on the order of 4 nm. Despite having similar initial surface areas and sample purities, SCS-Co3O4 outperforms commercially available Co3O4 and elemental cobalt (Co) nano powders when used as a catalyst precursor for NaBH4 hydrolysis. Hydrogen generation rates (HGR) using 0.6 wt% NaBH4 in aqueous solution at 20 °C were observed to be 1.24 ± 0.2 L minâ1 gcatâ1 for SCS nano-foam Co3O4 compared to 0.90 ± 0.09 and 0.43 ± 0.04 L minâ1 gcatâ1 for commercially available Co3O4 and Co, respectively. The high catalytic activity of SCS-Co3O4 is attributed to its nano-foam morphology and crystallinity. During the hydrolysis of NaBH4, the SCS-Co3O4 converts in-situ to an amorphous active catalyst with a specific surface area of 92 m2 gâ1 and exhibits a honeycomb type morphology.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
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Authors
T.L. Pfeil, T.L. Pourpoint, L.J. Groven,