Hydrogen Generation from Sodium Borohydride Hydrolysis with a Cu–Co-Based Catalyst: A Kinetic Study

In the present work, Cu–Co-supported catalysts were tested for hydrogen generation from the hydrolysis reaction of an alkaline sodium borohydride solution. Cu–Co catalysts were prepared by the chemical reduction with NaBH₄ and characterized with scanning electron microscope. The effect of Cu–Co ratio was investigated. The results suggested that the optimal mixture percentage of Cu–Co catalyst was 60:40; excessive Cu resulted in poor catalytic activity. The reactions were carried out at temperatures of 20, 30, 40, and 50°C. The experimental data was fitted to the nth-order kinetic models. The results indicate that the nth-order model gives a reasonable description of the hydrogen generation rate over all of the temperature range. The activation energy and pre-exponential factor of the nth-order reaction model were obtained as 42.66 kJ mol⁻¹ and 1.21 × 10⁴, respectively.