Synergistic effect on hydrolytic sodium borohydride adding waste Al for hydrogen generation

Abstract Synergistic effect of sodium borohydride (NaBH 4 ) mixed with waste aluminum in hydrolytic system were investigated to improve the hydrogen generation (HG) efficiency. The alkaline aqueous originated from NaBH 4 hydrolysis impels the passive aluminum hydroxide film of Al surface to be dissolved, thus, mutual effect of HG amount increasing by 88% and 50% for Al powder and waste Al can, respectively. To add acid catalyst in the mutual mixture system prompts to significantly accelerate HG rate from 100 ml/min˙g to 400 ml/min˙g but raising temperature is not obviously found. It is speculated that exothermic effect dominates the NaBH 4 hydrolytic reaction and eliminates the temperature effect. In this study, the mutual hydrolyzed reaction of NaBH 4 and waste Al provides ecofriendly environment, low cost and enables to achieve higher HG rate and further uses for portable/mobile fields.