Borophene Oxide and Graphene Oxide for Renewable Energy: A Comparative Study on their Catalytic Performance in Sodium Borohydride Hydrolysis for Hydrogen Generation

The recent rise of borophene as a new 2D material has triggered competition with the well‐known graphene. The present work serves as the first attempt to compare the efficiency of borophene oxide (BO) and graphene oxide (GO) in catalyzing NaBH 4 hydrolysis for hydrogen generation. For a fair comparison, the BO and GO particles are synthesized using the same improved Hummers’ method. Morphological studies show that both BO and GO appear in plate‐like shapes; however, GO exhibits a more scrunched and rippled structure with larger interlayer spacing. BO and GO exhibit more oxygen‐containing groups than their bulk counterparts. X‐ray diffraction analysis indicates that BO has a reduced crystallinity, while GO exhibits turbostratic disorder. Regarding catalytic properties, both BO and GO are found to be on par as catalysts, increasing hydrogen yield from NaBH 4 hydrolysis by 25 times in 30 s, offering new insights for the clean energy industry.