Preparation of Co-B catalysts and their performance in catalyzing NaBH4 hydrolysis for hydrogen generation

Large-scale production of hydrogen has been a challenge on our way towards greener energy consumption. The Co-B catalyst has been found to be an excellent catalyst for NaBH₄ hydrolysis in hydrogen production, but the optimal preparation method for the catalyst preparation and the factors that affect its performance remain to be explored. This paper proposed a chemical reduction method to prepare cobalt boride (Co-B) catalysts, discussed the performance of the catalyst in catalyzing sodium borohydride (NaBH₄) hydrolysis for hydrogen production as the temperature and the solvent ratio varied. The effects of the temperature and solvent ratio during synthesis on the catalytic performance were studied, and techniques including X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were employed to reveal the crystal structure and micromorphology of the Co-B catalyst under different temperatures and solvent ratios of synthesis; the energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) was used to analyze the elemental makeup of the Co-B catalyst. The main findings of the research here are as follows. First, no phase transition was observed in the Co-B catalyst as the synthesis temperature varied; second, the specific surface area of the synthesized catalyst changed as the synthesis temperature varied, and at 100°C during synthesis, the Co-B catalyst reached a larger specific surface area and hence better catalytic performance. Therefore, a Co-B catalyst with both large pore size and large specific surface area was synthesized at 100°C using a solvent composed only of CH₂OH₂ in this study, and the prepared catalyst demonstrated high efficiency in catalyzing the hydrolysis of NaBH₄. Moreover, it was found that when the catalytic temperature was set at an appropriate value, the catalytic rate would see significant improvement. The research findings are expected to provide a solution to preparation of Co-B catalysts and improve its catalytic performance in processing of fuel products in industrial scenarios.