A Process for Hydrogen Production from the Catalytic Decomposition of Formic Acid over Iridium-Palladium Nanoparticles

Hamed M Alshammari; Mohammad Hayal Alotaibi; Obaid F Aldosari; Abdulellah S Alsolami; Nuha A Alotaibi; Yahya A Alzahrani; Mosaed S Alhumaimess; Raja L Alotaibi; Gamal A El-Hiti

doi:10.3390/ma14123258

A Process for Hydrogen Production from the Catalytic Decomposition of Formic Acid over Iridium-Palladium Nanoparticles

Materials (Basel). 2021 Jun 12;14(12):3258. doi: 10.3390/ma14123258.

Authors

Hamed M Alshammari¹, Mohammad Hayal Alotaibi², Obaid F Aldosari³, Abdulellah S Alsolami², Nuha A Alotaibi², Yahya A Alzahrani², Mosaed S Alhumaimess⁴, Raja L Alotaibi², Gamal A El-Hiti⁵

Affiliations

¹ Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Ha'il University, P.O. Box 2440, Ha'il 81451, Saudi Arabia.
² National Center for Petrochemicals Technology, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), P.O. Box 6086, Riyadh 11442, Saudi Arabia.
³ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Majmaah University, P.O. Box 66, Majmaah 11952, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Chemistry Department, College of Science, Jouf University, P.O. Box 2014, Sakaka 72351, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Cornea Research Chair, Department of Optometry, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 10219, Riyadh 11433, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

The present study investigates a process for the selective production of hydrogen from the catalytic decomposition of formic acid in the presence of iridium and iridium-palladium nanoparticles under various conditions. It was found that a loading of 1 wt.% of 2% palladium in the presence of 1% iridium over activated charcoal led to a 43% conversion of formic acid to hydrogen at room temperature after 4 h. Increasing the temperature to 60 °C led to further decomposition and an improvement in conversion yield to 63%. Dilution of formic acid from 0.5 to 0.2 M improved the decomposition, reaching conversion to 81%. The reported process could potentially be used in commercial applications.

Keywords: catalysis; formic acid decomposition; green chemistry; hydrogen production; iridium; palladium; renewable energy.