Recoverable sepiolite coated B-CoP/ cellulose hybrid aerogel as monolithic catalysts for hydrogen generation via NaBH₄ hydrolysis

The design of an efficient and reusable monolithic catalyst is important for catalyzing the hydrolysis of NaBH4 to generate H-2. Herein, an aerogel catalyst was prepared by freeze-drying of hydrazine modified cellulose nanofibers (NH2NH-CNF), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and B-doped CoP loaded sepiolite nanofibers. Further chemical cross-linking using glutaraldehyde (GA) resulted in better mechanical properties and shape recovery. Among them, the catalytic active component B-CoP@aSep has a low activation energy of 35.7 KJ center dot mol(-1). In addition, the optimized composite aerogel catalyst can get hydrogen generation rate (3534 mL min(-1)g(catalyst)(-1)), which was maintained at 79.4% even after 5 cycles of testing. The better mechanical and catalytic properties of aerogel catalysts are mainly attributed to the overall three-dimensional layered porous structure maintained by chemical bonds and the heterogeneous interface formed by B-doped CoP.