Effective hydrolysis of sodium borohydride driven by self-supported cobalt oxide nanorod array for on-demand hydrogen generation

Hydrogen storage, distribution and controlled release are of important concerns for hydrogen based economy. Sodium borohydride (NaBH 4 ) is one of the mostly studied chemical hydrides used for hydrogen storage and generation. However, it requires efficient catalysts to accelerate its dehydrogenation for controllable hydrogen production . In this paper, we demonstrate that the dehydrogenation of NaBH 4 in alkaline solutions can be driven by self-supported cobalt oxide nanorod array on Ti sheet (Co 3 O 4 NA/Ti). Such Co 3 O 4 NA/Ti shows high catalytic performance with a maximum hydrogen generation rate of 1940   mL/min/g Co3O4 and an activation energy of 59.84   kJ/mol under ambient condition. Moreover, this catalyst exhibits no mass or activity loss even after 5   cycles with an obvious advantage of easy separation from the fuel solution. This development offers us a cost-effective and recyclable catalytic material toward hydrolytic hydrogen production for applications.