“Cost-effective chitosan-coated cellulosic supports, functionalized with zerovalent nanoparticles for sustainable hydrogen generation"

Abstract

The preparation method for the synthesis of cost-effective support coated cellulosic composites, decorated with zerovalent nanoparticles is reported in this study. For sustainable hydrogen generation, metallic nanoparticles (MNPs) supported on chitosan coated cellulosic tissue strips were fabricated by treating with metal ions i.e. Ag(I), Cu(II) and Fe(III) solution followed by treatment with sodium borohydride (NaBH₄). NaBH₄. After subjecting to characterization techniques including; X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanned Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, prepared samples were then tested as catalysts for hydrogen generation in methanolysis of NaBH_4. Results showed that these two naturals, abundant, environment friendly polymers (cellulose, chitosan) can readily adsorbed MNPs by the method employed in current study. And the synthesized MNPs supported on polymer composites were proven good catalysts for the methanolysis of NaBH₄ reaction and were effortlessly recyclable by just taking out from the reaction matrix. Among the three tested metals, Cu based catalysts showed best performance as the reaction which took more than 20 min to complete without catalyst was completed in just 1.27 min, as compared to 1.48 and 1.67 min for Ag and Fe based catalyst respectively.