A portable hydrogen generation system: Catalytic hydrolysis of ammonia-borane

Ammonia-borane, NH3BH3, dissolves in water to form a stable solution, to which the addition of a catalytic amount of suitable metal catalysts leads to hydrogen release with an H-2 to NH3BH3 ratio up to 3.0, corresponding to 8.9 wt.% of the starting materials NH3BH3 and H2O. This article presents a brief overview of the hydrogen generation system based on the catalytic dissociation and hydrolysis of ammonia-borane, which possesses high potential to find application to portable fuel cells. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.