Catalytic decomposition of H2O2 over Nb/KIT-6 catalyst for environmental applications

Abstract

In this study, it is aimed to investigate catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide for oxygen generation for a fuel-cell based air independent hydrogen production system in underwater applications for our following studies. O-2 and water were generated after H2O2 was decomposed catalytically. Here, H2O2 acts as an oxidizer and pure O-2 is fed on to a fuel cell and the water is used for hydrolysis reaction of sodium borohydride for clean H-2 production. Due to these reasons, H2O2 was selected as an oxygen source concurrently. H2O2 is an environmentally friendly chemical because of its decomposition by-product is only water. The prepared Nb based KIT-6 silica catalysts showed high catalytic activities for the H2O2 decomposition. These catalysts were characterized by SEM, SEM-EDX, FT-IR, ICP-OES, TEM, N-2 adsorption-desorption and XRD analyses.