Boosting borohydride hydrolysis for H2 generation by MOF-templated void-engineered shaggy cobalt oxide: Abundant oxygen vacancy-mediated enhancement

Abstract

Designing an advantageous catalyst for enhancing the release of hydrogen (H2) from NaBH4 hydrolysis is still desirable. Herein, a void-engineered shaggy cobalt oxide (VSCO) is constructed via facile carving and calcination using the cuboid cobalt-based metal organic framework (Co-MOF) as a template. The as-prepared VSCO shows unique structural properties, such as large internal void, high specific surface area, and abundant oxygen vacancy, enabling VSCO to boost H2 production from NaBH4 hydrolysis. VSCO also exhibits an activation energy (Ea) of 28.9 kJ mol−1, which is much lower than that of commercial Co3O4 NP (62.9 kJ mol−1) and most of recent reported noble metals. VSCO also retains its outstanding catalytic activity over multiple cycles. This work sheds a light into the new approach of constructing metal oxide material with the void structure and abundant oxygen vacancies for catalyzing the hydrolysis of NaBH4.