Carbon nanospheres supported bimetallic Pt-Co as an efficient catalyst for NaBH4 hydrolysis

Abstract Sodium borohydride (NaBH4) is widely identified as a promising hydrogen storage material, therefore, developing a catalyst with high efficiency for hydrogen production is an important subject for development and utilization of hydrogen energy. Meanwhile the hydrolytic mechanism of NaBH4 needs further study which is helpful for hydrolysis researches. In this study, an efficient catalyst comprising of carbon nanospheres (CNSs) supporting ultrafine bimetallic Pt-Co nanoparticles (CNSs@Pt0.1Co0.9) has been successfully synthesized for hydrogen evolution from NaBH4 hydrolysis. The growth of the Pt-Co nanoparticles on the surface of CNSs is regulated by adjustment of solvent during the preparation. The as-prepared CNSs@Pt0.1Co0.9 catalyst exhibits an outstanding performance in the kinetic and thermodynamic tests with the highest hydrogen generation rate (HGR) of 8943 mLH2·min−1·gM–1, initial turnover frequency (TOF) value of 280.1 moLH2·min−1·molPt–1, and a low activation energy (Ea) of 38.0 kJ·mol−1. The hydrolytic mechanism has been surveyed simultaneously by the isotopic tracer method through the mass spectrometric analysis. The catalyst retains extremely high catalytic activity value and the hydrogen generation conversion is still 100% even after five cycles in the catalytic performance tests.