As cobalt is an effective metal for catalyzing hydrolysis of NaBH4 to produce H2, Co3O4 is a proven catalyst for facilitating NaBH4 hydrolysis. Since Co3O4 can be designed into various morphologies, 2-dimensional plate-like Co3O4 can offer large contact surfaces. If the planar surfaces can be even porous, forming porous Co3O4 nanoplate (PCNP), this PCNP would be a promising catalyst for HG. Therefore, in this study, a facile approach is developed to fabricate such a PCNP for H2 generation (HG) from NaBH4 hydrolysis. Specifically, a cobaltic hexagonal nanoplate-like coordination polymer, which is synthesized via coordinating Co2+ with thiocyanuric acid (TA), is adopted as a precursor. Through calcination, Co-TA (CTA) is transformed into hexagonal nanoplate-like Co3O4 with pores to become PCNP. More importantly, PCNP showed quite different surficial reactivity and textural properties from commercial Co3O4 nanoparticle (Co3O4 NP), enabling PCNP to possess a much more superior catalytic activity towards HG from NaBH4 hydrolysis. PCNP also showed a comparatively low Ea of 35.12 kJ/mol in comparison with the reported catalysts, even precious metal catalysts, and it could be reused up to 10 cycles for HG with stable catalytic activities. These features confirm that PCNP is an advantageous catalyst for HG from NaBH4 hydrolysis.
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