A study of hydrogen generation by reaction of an activated Mg–CoCl2 (magnesium–cobalt chloride) composite with pure water for portable applications

Hydrogen production based in the corrosion of light metals in water solutions is an interesting alternative. Among all of them, Mg is probably the most adequate metal for energetic purposes due to its high electron density and oxidation potential. A safe and environmental-friendly method of hydrogen production from milled Mg–CoCl2 composites in water was proposed in this paper. An improved mechanism for the reactivity was developed. The experimental results indicated that the activated Mg–CoCl2 composites are very promising materials for hydrogen generation upon reaction with pure water. When immersed in pure water (50 °C), the hydrolysis reaction of the Mg-6 wt% CoCl2 composite began immediately, and the reaction rate reached 558.6 mL(min g)−1 in the first minute; the evolution of hydrogen reached 98.6% of the theoretical yield.