Chitosan coated cellulose cotton fibers as catalyst for the H2 production from NaBH4 methanolysis

Cellulose cotton fibers (CF) are coated with chitosan (CH) by simple, economic, and environmental friendly method. The CFs are kept in aqueous acetic acid solution to protonate the fibers before coated with CH solution (1.5% w/v in acetic acid aqueous solution (20% v/v)), represented as CF-A-CH. These materials are characterized by ATR-FTIR, XRD, FE-SEM and EDS which shows the successful coating of the CH on the CF surface. The prepared materials are exploited as an effective catalyst for the production of hydrogen (H₂) from NaBH₄ methanolysis reaction. In addition, other polymers (gelatin and agarose) and surfactants (brij-56, pluronic F-127 and urea) as well as CH in solution form are testified as catalyst for NaBH₄ methanolysis reaction. High generation rate (8 times) and increase in amount of H₂ (150 mL) is observe using only 50 μL CH solution. Furthermore, influences of various constraints, which affect the H₂ production, like catalyst types, catalyst amount, NaBH₄ amount, effect of temperature are also explored. A low activation energy (Ea), almost 14.41 ± 0.46 kJ mol⁻¹ is calculated for NaBH₄ methanolysis reaction in presence of CF-A-CH at temperature range 0 °C - 45 °C. Moreover, the catalyst reusability is also analyzed and no decline in percent conversion is found, whereas a little reduction in percent performance is detected after every cycle and only 18% lost is observed in its percent activity after completion of five successive cycles.