Hydrogen Generation From Aluminum With Water Using Iron/Cobalt/Nickle And Aluminum Hydroxide

A variety of methods were used to accelerate aluminum-water reaction to produce hydrogen, such as aluminum reacting with alkali solution, ball milling aluminum and other metals, adding inorganic salt in water et al.. In this work, iron/cobalt/nickel and aluminum hydroxide was used as the catalyst to accelerate aluminum-water reaction. The main conclusions were as follows:（1） The influence of iron/cobalt/nickel on aluminum-water reaction was investigated. With increasing the quality of catalysts, the induced time became shorted and the hydrogen evolution volume of this reaction increased. Among Fe, Co and Ni, Fe showed the best catalytic behavior. When the amount of Fe was 0.02 g, the hydrogen generation volume was 875 ml/g at 35℃ and the induced time was 116 min. The volume reached 1222 ml/g at 45℃ and the induced time shorted 33 min. Tafel results show that the corrosion voltage of Al-H₂O reaction induced by Fe was-0.34 V at 25℃. Increasing the temperature to 55℃, it decreased to-0.45 V. This change suggested that the corrosion of Al was accelerated with increasing temperature.（2） The influence of aluminum hydroxide on aluminum-water reaction was examined. The bulk（A）, prisms（B） and the aggregation of particles（C） Al（OH）₃ was prepared. The mass of Al（OH）₃ in water was different due to the different microstructure. Among them, B showed the best catalytic behavior. The amount of hydrogen generation was 1247 ml/g with no induction time（B=2.34g） and the hydrogen yield rate was 23.8 ml/g·min. The higher the temperature was, the faster the aluminum corrosion was. When the temperature rose to 55℃, the hydrogen generation rate reached 67.5 ml/g·min. Tafel results show that the corrosion voltage decreased from- 0.40 V at 25 ℃ to-0.51 V at 55 ℃.