Hydrogen production from hydrolysis of NaBH4 solution over Co–Fe–B@g-C3N4/NF thin film catalyst

• Published in: Rare metals Vol. 43; no. 6; pp. 2648 - 2659
• Main Authors: Wang, Yan, Ma, Jia-Xin, Ren, Jian, Zhang, Di, Xu, Feng-Yan, Zhang, Ke, Cao, Zhong-Qiu, Sun, Qiu-Ju, Li, Guo-De, Wu, Shi-Wei, Chen, Hong-Hui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing Nonferrous Metals Society of China 01.06.2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Biomaterials; Carbon nitride; Catalysts; Chemistry and Materials Science; Cobalt; Energy; Hydrogen production; Hydrolysis; Iron; Light irradiation; Materials Engineering; Materials Science; Metal foams; Metallic Materials; Nanoscale Science and Technology; Noble metals; Original Article; Physical Chemistry; Reducing agents; Room temperature; Thin films; Sodium borohydride; Co–Fe–B@g-C; N; Hydrogen production; Chemical deposition; NF catalyst
• ISSN: 1001-0521; 1867-7185
• DOI: 10.1007/s12598-024-02647-3

In this study, the double loaded Co–Fe–B@g-C 3 N 4 /NF (NF: Ni foam) thin film catalysts were prepared for the first time via chemical deposition method at room temperature. By optimizing the reducing agent concentration to 0.9 mol·L −1 , the as-obtained Co–Fe–B@g-C 3 N 4 /NF exhibited the twisted ribbon structure with more distinct three-dimensional hierarchy and the smaller particle size, showing the good catalytic property for the hydrolysis of NaBH 4 solution. The H 2 generation rate of Co–Fe–B@g-C 3 N 4 /NF and binary Co–B@g-C 3 N 4 /NF under visible light irradiation surpassed the value under natural condition. The apparent activation energy of Co–Fe–B@g-C 3 N 4 /NF (45.0 kJ·mol −1 ) under visible light irradiation was obviously reduced when compared with the natural condition (48.4 kJ·mol −1 ) and binary Co–B@g-C 3 N 4 /NF (60.6 kJ·mol −1 ) under visible light irradiation. Furthermore, the catalytic performance of the optimized Co–Fe–B@g-C 3 N 4 /NF thin film catalyst was superior to most of the reported non-noble metal and even noble metal catalysts. Hence, it illustrated that the catalytic H 2 production performance of Co–Fe–B@g-C 3 N 4 /NF thin film was distinctly improved after the introduction of light and multicomponent recombination. Graphical abstract