Synthesis of highly stable cobalt nanorods anchored on a Ti4N3Tx MXene composite for the hydrolysis of sodium borohydride

Abstract

Cobalt-based catalysts are widely used for borohydride hydrolysis, but they are limited by their poor activity and stability. In this study, highly stable cobalt nanorods were facilely anchored on T4N3Tx MXene via hydrothermal synthesis. T4N3Tx effectively prevented the aggregation of the cobalt nanoparticles. The Co/T4N3Tx composite demonstrated superior activity and stability for the hydrolysis of sodium borohydride, which displayed a high hydrogen generation rate of 526 mL g−1 min−1 at 30 °C. The catalyst retained 75% of its initial activity after 15 cycles, which is much higher than previously reported results. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations showed that the Gibbs free energy of hydrogen adsorption on Co/T4N3Tx is close to 0 eV, further confirming the excellent activity of Co/T4N3Tx. These results indicate that the prepared Co/T4N3Tx catalyst is promising for use in hydrogen production via the hydrolysis of borohydride.