Synthesization of carbon nanotube supported metal catalysts for sodium boron hydrodry hydrolysis

With increasing technology, both energy needs increase and the amount of fossil fuels available is decreasing day by day. Decreased fossil fuels and increased energy demand have led researchers to search for different energy sources. Hydrogen energy is one of these energy sources. Hydrogen can be stored in molecular form in pressure vessels. In its atomic form, it can be stored in metal hydrides and metal borohydrides. Hydrogen production from metal borohydrides is more advantageous than metal hydrides since hydrogen production from the metal hydrides is reversible due to thermal decomposition. Sodium borohydride is only one of these metal borohydrides. In the production of sodium borohydride hydrogen, it is a great advantage that half of the released hydrogen comes from water. Sodium borohydride hydrolysis is stable in basic medium but is carried out with the aid of a catalyst. More different transition metals are used as catalysts. In this work, carbon nanotube supported binary metal boron catalyst was synthesized for sodium borohydride hydrolysis. Carbon nanotube production used as support material has been realized. The Co-Cr-B catalyst used in sodium borohydride hydrolysis is available in the literature. Catalysts of sodium borohydride hydrolysis, both Ni-Cr-B catalyst and carbon nanotube supported binary metal boron (Co-Cr-B and Ni-Cr-B) catalysts were not available in the literature and were used for the first time in this study. Experimental studies carried out within the scope of the thesis were carried out in four stages. These include carbon nanotube production, determination of the molar fraction of binary metal boron catalysts, synthesis of carbon nanotube supported catalysts, and sodium borohydride and hydrolysis of synthesized catalysts. Experimental studies using catalysts in the hydrolysis of sodium borohydride; the effect of sodium borohydride concentration, NaOH concentration, solution temperature and catalytic quantity parameters were investigated. Hydrolysis kinetics and activation energy of sodium borohydride hydrolysis were determined for each catalyst. Characterization of the synthesized catalysts was carried out by SEM, EDX, XRD and BET Surface Area devices.