Hydrogen generation from NaBH4 solution using Co–Fe–B@ZnO/Ni foam prepared by chemical deposition

Abstract

In this work, double-supported Co–Fe–B@ZnO/Ni foam is fabricated by chemical deposition. Under light irradiation, the rate of hydrogen production is 8291 mL min−1 g−1 at 298 K and 12533 mL min−1 g−1 at 303 K, and the apparent activation energy is 49.0 kJ mol−1 toward NaBH4 hydrolysis, which manifests that the catalytic effect has obviously strengthened when compared with the vast majority of reported catalysts. Moreover, the catalyst shows good cyclic stability with attenuation of 0.05 % after 5 cycles, revealing double-supported strategy is effective to synthesize high-activity catalyst materials for NaBH4 hydrolysis.