Study on preparation and performance of Ru-Fe/GO catalyst for sodium borohydride alcoholysis to produce hydrogen

Abstract

Ru-Fe bimetallic alloy nanoparticle catalyst (Ru-Fe/GO) was prepared by chemical reduction method on graphene oxide prepared using Hummers modified method. The structure and morphology of both GO and Ru-Fe/GO were analyzed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).The effect of catalyst components on hydrogen generation rate for NaBH₄ methanolysis was investigated. When Ru:Fe is 6:1, the catalytic activity is the highest, and the average rate is about 473 mL·min⁻¹·g⁻¹. The effect of temperature, Sodium hydroxide concentration, and sodium borohydride concentration on reaction rate is also discussed, and the activation energy for the methanolysis of sodium borohydride is 59.33 kJ·mol⁻¹ based on the data.

Keywords:

• Ru-Fe/GO catalyst
• graphene oxide
• sodium borohydride
• alcoholysis
• produce hydrogen

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial supports from National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.21476020）and the Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China (No. 2017JM2028).