Highly efficient hydrogen production from formaldehyde over Ag/γ-Al2O3 catalyst at room temperature

Herein, we demonstrate a simple and efficient process for generating hydrogen from the formaldehyde (HCHO) aqueous solution catalyzed by Ag nanoparticles dispersed on high specific surface area γ-Al2O3 at room temperature. Moreover, this Ag/γ-Al2O3 catalyst exhibits much higher capability and stability for hydrogen production than unsupported Ag nanoparticles. By further optimizing the structure, component, and amounts of Ag/γ-Al2O3 catalysts as well as reaction parameters such as reaction atmosphere, formaldehyde concentrations, and NaOH concentrations, the hydrogen generation rate could be greatly increased and maintained for ten hours without any decay. It may provide a general and favorable strategy for the fabrication of highly reactive and stable metal catalyst for the hydrogen production from organic aldehyde solutions.