Microwave treatment and fluorine addition on Co-B catalyst to improve the hydrogen production rate

In this paper, microwave heating treatment process and fluorine addition over Co-B-F catalyst was applied to produce hydrogen via the hydrolysis of NaBH₄. The effects of microwave heating treatment time, microwave heating treatment power, microwave inert gases and temperature on the catalyst were studied. X-ray absorption spectrometer, scanning electron microscopy coupled to energy-dispersive spectroscopy, nitrogen adsorption analyzer and infrared spectrometer were performed for the chemical characterization of the catalysts. It was found that Co-B-F and microwave-treated Co-B-F catalysts exhibited excellent catalytic activity to produce hydrogen. The rates of the maximum hydrogen production for untreated and microwave-treated Co-B-F catalysts are 1868 and 3400 mL/g/min, respectively.