Study on the performance of NaBH4 using Ru-Co/CNTs catalyst to catalyze alcoholysis to produce hydrogen.

Ru-Co/CNTs catalysts are prepared by microwave-assisted heating electroless plating using Carbon nanotubes as Carrier. The structure of the catalyst was analyzed by TEM, XRD, EDS and TGA, and the performance of the catalytic alcoholysis of sodium borohydride was tested. At 25 oC, the carbon nanotube diameter is 10-20 nm, the catalyst dosage is 20 mg, the sodium borohydride concentration is 5 wt.%, and the sodium hydroxide concentration is 7 wt.%, the maximum rate of catalytic hydrogen production reaches the maximum value. At the same time, the activation energy is calculated to be 34.35 kJ · mol-1, which is much lower than the activation energy of spontaneous alcoholysis of sodium borohydride (63.0 kJ/mol). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]