ZIF-67-derived for B-doped NiCoP hollow nanocages as efficient catalysts synergistically promoting NaBH4 hydrolysis

Abstract

Designing a non-noble metal catalyst with fast charge transfer, high electron density, and abundant active sites is an effective strategy for improving the sluggish kinetics and achieving efficient hydrogen generation (HG) in the NaBH4 hydrolysis process. In view of the influence of heterogeneous elements and microstructure on the catalyst performance, ZIF-67 was initially utilized as a precursor to be converted into a mixed phase containing CoNi-LDH and ZIF-67 with identical microstructure by a controlled strategy of ion-exchange method. After further phosphitylation and immersion in NaBH4 solution, B–NiCoP/NC catalysts were obtained with the hollow nanocage structure consisting of B-doped metal phosphide (NiCoP) as well as nitrogen-doped carbon (NC). The synergistic coupling between the heteroatoms and the distinct microstructure of the optimized B–NiCoP/NC shows a high HG rate (5853.9 mL min⁻1 gcatalyst⁻1) and low activation energy (33.92 kJ mol−1), surpassing the performance of mostly reported similar catalysts. Moreover, B–NiCoP/NC exhibits a retained initial activity of 68.7 % even after six cycles. This work offered one of the referable strategies to improve the performance of non-precious metal catalysts in multiple aspects.