Highly active porous Co–B nanoalloy synthesized on liquid-gas interface for hydrolysis of sodium borohydride

Abstract

Porous Co–B nanoalloy is a low-cost and highly active catalyst towards the hydrolysis of sodium borohydride (NaBH4). In this study, a facile and room-temperature hydrogen bubble-assisted method was developed to prepare porous Co–B nanoalloy (Co-Bbubble) materials exhibiting high catalytic activity. The obtained materials are characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometer, transmission electron microscopy and surface area experiments. It is found that the hydrogen bubbles generated in-situ in the reaction system can act as template, which played an important role in determining the porous architecture of the final Co–B product. In the hydrolysis of sodium borohydride for hydrogen generation, the porous Co-Bbubble nanoalloy materials exhibit high catalytic activity with mass normalized rate constant of 5.31 Lhydrogen min−1 gcatalyst−1; a value which is much higher than those obtained for many other Co–B catalysts recently reported in the literature. The apparent activation energy (Ea) of the catalytic process is found to be ca. 30 kJ mol−1. It is proposed that the high catalytic performance and low cost of Co-Bbubble nanoalloy catalyst can be a promising material candidate in the hydrolysis of sodium borohydride for hydrogen production for commercial applications.