Hydrogen production from hydrolysis of Al–Ga–In–SnCl2 composites

Highly active Al–Ga–In–SnCl2 composites for hydrogen production were prepared by mechanical ball milling. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses were used to characterize the composition and morphology of the composites. Moreover, the hydrogen production performance of the composites was systematically investigated at room temperature. The experiment results indicated that the addition of SnCl2 significantly enhanced the hydrolysis properties of Al–Ga–In ternary alloys. The Al-3%Ga-3%In-5%SnCl2 composite exhibited the optimal hydrogen production performance with a maximum hydrogen production of 1190 ml g−1 and a maximum generation rate of 1110 ml min−1 g−1 at 25 °C. Furthermore, we studied the effect of milling time, initial water temperature, and water quality on the final hydrogen production performance.