Preparation of Ru catalyst supported on porous carbon and its performance in catalyzing sodium borohydride hydrolysis for hydrogen production

Hydrogen energy, as a zero-carbon efficient energy, has promoted the development of NaBH₄ hydrolysis hydrogen production technology, but kinetic bottleneck needs to be broken through by efficient catalysts. In this study, a multi-level porous carbon MKC with both mesopores and micropores was prepared template method combined with KOH activation, and Ru nanoparticles were loaded （Ru/MKC）. Characterization （SEM/TEM/XRD/XPS/BET） showed that Ru/MKC had a significant optimization of mass transfer and active site density due to the synergistic effect of multi-level porosity （specific surface area 1 900 cm²/g） and uniform dispersion of Ru. Performance test showed that the hydrogen production rate of Ru/MKC under the condition of 303 K and 1% NaBH₄/ 1% NaOH （10 980 mL/（min·g）） was 5 times higher than that of the sample, with low activation energy of 63.4 kJ/mol and the activity remained at 67% after 5 cycles. The performance advantage was attributed to mesopores accelerated the diffusion of reactants, micropores provided high-density defect anchoring Ru particles, and the problem of mass transfer limitation in pure micropores and loading in pure mesopores was solved simultaneously, achieving dual optimization of electron conduction and catalytic sites.