Sulfonated Nanolayers of H+-Montmorillonite as an Efficient Acidic Catalyst for Hydrogen Generation from Hydrolysis of Sodium Borohydride

Montmorillonite (MMT) is used as a versatile catalyst because of its acidic nature and flexible nanolayers available for chemical modification. This work reports the synthesis of sulfonic acid functionalized montmorillonite (SMMT) by the chemical modification of acidic -OH groups present on the MMT nanolayers and its characterization and confirmation using various modern techniques including FT-IR, TGA, XRD, BET, FE-SEM, and elemental analysis. Finally, the prepared SMMT catalyst was applied to hydrogen generation from hydrolysis of SB. Various reaction parameters such as effect of catalyst dosage, temperature and reaction kinetics were studied in detail. Results showed that the acidic protons on catalyst surface are being easily accessible to be involved in SB hydrolysis thereby promoting hydrogen generation rate. SMMT catalyst requires the less activation energy (E-a) corresponding to similar to 30 kJmol(-1) for SB hydrolysis and thus exhibited high catalytic activity for the efficient production of pure hydrogen.