Hydrogen generation from hydrous hydrazine over Rh/g-C₃N₄ nanocatalysts

In this paper, g-C₃N₄ obtained by calcining melamine at high temperature in static air was used as the carrier, and the precious metal Rh was used as the active component. The Rh nanoparticles were supported on the g-C₃N₄ support by a simple impregnation reduction method to prepare high activity and high selectivity. Various characterization methods were used to study the microstructure and composition of the catalyst. In addition, the effect of reaction temperature and NaOH concentration on the catalytic decomposition of hydrous hydrazine was also investigated. The results show that the excellent catalytic activity of the catalyst stems from the fact that the g-C₃N₄ support provides anchor sites for the metal Rh and the support and the strong metal-support interactions. The catalytic activity of the catalyst increases with the increase of the reaction temperature, and the Rh/g-C₃N₄ catalyst has the highest catalytic activity when the NaOH concentration is 0.75 mol/L. The Rh/g-C₃N₄ catalyst has an activation energy of 30.7 kJ/mol and TOF value of 1466.4 h⁻¹ for catalyzing the decomposition of hydrous hydrazine for hydrogen production. After 5 cycles, the catalyst still maintains a good catalytic activity, indicating that the catalyst has a good cyclic stability.