Due to growth of the world’s population and the increasing number of technologies, the consumption of energy is increasing. It is mostly obtained from fossil fuels whose sources are limited. Furthermore, their use affects the environment in a negative way. Alternative energy sources, pure and renewable, are being explored because of the desire to limit global warming. A possible alternative is hydrogen which could substitute oil in cars.
Hydrogen is a light element and the most common in nature, odourless, colourless, non-toxic and does not cause CO2 emissions. Due to its low volumetric energy density, its practical use demands great volume. Therefore, it needs to be stored liquid under great pressure, so materials are being discovered and developed to enable its storage. One of them is AB containing 19,6 weight % of hydrogen which can be discharged at heating. The procedure is supposed to run in three stages. This is the subject matter of the degree and has been researched with the help of thermal analysis (TG, DTA, QMS). The same methods have been used to measure the effects of flow, heating rate and the use of catalyst on thermal decomposition of AB to hydrogen.
Research has shown that the flow of flushing gas sample does not affect disintegration in a great deal. When comparing two flows, namely 50 and 100 mL/min, the temperature ranges of gas fragmentation and substantial falls at TG curves were almost identical. Furthermore, the flow did not affect the size of mass change at a specific fall.
The impact of heating rate has been established by comparing three AB samples, subject to various temperature programmes, namely the heating rate of 1, 5 and 10 K/min. The rate did not affect the mass loss in a specific stage. On the other hand, it did affect temperature ranges of mass change and hydrogen emission in a specific stage. By increasing heating range, the temperature when AB decomposition started, increased as well.
Finally, the impact of catalyst (5 % Ni/C) on thermal decomposition of AB has been investigated by comparing samples with three different shares of catalyst added, namely 0, 20 and 40 weight % according to AB. The use of catalyst did not greatly affect temperature ranges of mass loss in samples. However, it did affect the change of mass in samples. By increasing the share of Ni/C, the change of mass in specific stages of decomposition decreased. Comparing QMS curves revealed that hydrogen emission started at lower temperature when increasing the use of catalyst. What is more, the catalyst visually affected AB. In samples with 20 and 40 weight % of Ni/C, the AB’s volume did not greatly enlarge, whereas in sample without the catalyst, the volume of AB enlarged.
Taking into consideration thermal analysis results and data from literature, it has been concluded that AB when heated is decomposed in a polymeric way which in the first stage leads to poly(aminoborane) creation, in the second stage to poly(iminoborane) creation and can afterwards lead to creation of borazine or even boron nitride. However, this has not occurred in any of the measures.
|