A comprehensive study of hydrogen production from ammonia borane via PdCoAg/AC nanoparticles and anodic current in alkaline medium: experimental design with response surface methodology

Abstract

In this paper, the optimization of hydrogen (H₂) production by ammonia borane (NH₃BH₃) over PdCoAg/AC was investigated using the response surface methodology. Besides, the electro-oxidation of NH₃BH₃ was determined and optimized using the same method to measure its potential use in the direct ammonium boran fuel cells. Moreover, the ternary alloyed catalyst was synthesized using the chemical reduction method. The synergistic effect between Pd, Co and Ag plays an important role in enhancement of NH₃BH₃ hydrolysis. In addition, the support effect could also efficiently improve the catalytic performance. Furthermore, the effects of NH₃BH₃ concentration (0.1–50 mmol/5 mL), catalyst amount (1–30 mg) and temperature (20°C–50°C) on the rate of H₂ production and the effects of temperature (20°C–50°C), NH₃BH₃ concentration (0.05–1 mol/L) and catalyst amount (0.5–5 µL) on the electro-oxidation reaction of NH₃BH₃ were investigated using the central composite design experimental design. The implementation of the response surface methodology resulted in the formulation of four models out of which the quadratic model was adjudged to efficiently appropriate the experimental data. A further statistical analysis of the quadratic model demonstrated the significance of the model with a p-value far less than 0.05 for each model and coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.85 and 0.95 for H₂ production rate and NH₃BH₃ electrroxidation peak current, respectively.

Keywords

ammonia borane / hydrogen production / fuel cell / response surface methodology

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Acknowledgments

This work was financiallysupported by the Scientific Research Projects Department of Van Yüzüncü Yıl University (Project No: FYL-2018-6571).

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