Hydrogen generation from the hydrolysis of sodium borohydride using TiO2 supported Ru nanocatalysts prepared by photocatalytic reduction

The worldwide application of hydrogen energy greatly promotes the development of NaBH4 hydrolysis for hydrogen production, particularly the study of hydrolysis catalysts. In this work, an anatase TiO2-supported ruthenium nanocatalysts (i.e., Ru/TiO2) was facilely prepared by photocatalytic reduction without the use of any chemical reducing reagents. The Ru catalysts had an average particle size of approximately 2.2 nm and were uniformly distributed. The Ru/TiO2 was characterized by HRTEM, EDS, XRD, XPS and ICP-AES, respectively, and evaluated by classical water-displacement method. Using a 5 wt.% NaBH 4 + 2 wt.% NaOH solution, hydrogen generation (HG) rate was as high as 38.6 L min(-1)g(Ru)(-1) at 30 degrees C, and apparent activation energy was calculated to be 55.91d mol(-1). Compared with similar Ru-based catalysts reported in literature, the Ru/TiO2 prepared in this work shows higher catalytic activity and lower apparent activation energy. After recycling for five times, the HG rate remained to be 91.7% of the initial level.