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 NaBH 4 to generate H 2 . Herein, an aerogel catalyst was prepared by freeze-drying of hydrazine modified cellulose nanofibers (NH 2 NH-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·mol −1 . In addition, the optimized composite aerogel catalyst can get hydrogen generation rate ( 3534 m L m i n - 1 g c a t a l y s t - 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.