Investigation of a non-noble composite catalyst for hydrogen release control of ammonia-borane

Ammonia-borane (NH3BH3) has been investigated as hydrogen storage material for fuelcell application because of its good gravimetric (19.6 wt%) and volumetric hydrogen density. Nonnoble metals such as cobalt, nickel and copper were employed as catalyst and their combination was also tried as catalysts. For the effective scanning method for a number of compositions, a high throughput screening (HTS) test was used. Among the catalysts investigated, the ternary composite Ni60Co20/ACF (active carbon fiber) showed excellent performance in releasing the hydrogen from NH3BH3 solution, which can be recommended as a viable/suitable catalyst for fuel-cell system application, with some necessary basic improvements.