Porous carbon particles as metal-free superior catalyst for hydrogen release from methanolysis of sodium borohydride.

Carbon materials can be readily prepared from wood derivatives, monosaccharaides such as pentose/hexose and/or polysaccharides in addition to many starting materials by treatment of thermal, chemical and hydrothermal methods. Here, the porous carbon (PC) particles were prepared by removal of silica particles from previously prepared carbon-silica composites by hydrothermal and carbonization process from sucrose. Then, PC particles were modified with polyethyleneimine (PEI) to prepared amine functionalized PC-PEI particles and protonated with hydrochloric acid, PC-PEI+. Finally, these prepared carbon-based particles were used as catalyst for H 2 release from NaBH 4 methanolysis and PC-PEI+ was found as the most effective catalyst at 25 °C with 4040 ± 126 mL H 2. min−1.g−1 HGR value. The E a value of 23.9 kJ/mol in H 2 release reaction from NaBH 4 methanolysis catalyzed by PC-PEI+ that is comparable and/or better than most of studies reported in literature. The activity% of PC-PEI+ catalyst was 72% after fifth consequential runs. Additionally, the regeneration ability of PC-PEI+ catalyst was also shown that after fifth regeneration process, there is only 5% decrease in activity%. Image 1 • Porous carbon (PC) based catalyst in H 2 release studies from NaBH 4 methanolysis. • Modified PC with PEI as PC-PEI+ as green catalyst for renewable energy utilization. • High Hydrogen Generation Rate (HGR) via metal free PC-PEI catalyst for H 2 production. • Low E a value, 23.9 kJ/mol for PC-PEI+ catalyzed H 2 methanolysis reaction is attained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]