Catalytic Hydrolysis of Sodium Borohydride

A study has been made of the influence of temperature, NaON, and concentrations of NaBH 4 on the rate of catalytic hydrolysis under isothermal and adiabatic conditions. Finely divided Co/TiO 2 powder was used as the model catalyst. The catalyst preserves its initial activity during 20 cycles, ensuring an NaBH 4 conversion of 94–98%. Activation energies equal to 65.6 and 55 kJ/mole have been determined in the aqueous and aqueous-alkaline solution of NaBH 4 respectively. It has been shown that the standard method of determining activation energy without account of sorption/ desorption processes leads to its dependence on the composition of the solution.