Metallic cobalt and molybdenum oxides encapsulated in B, N-doped carbon nanocomposite catalyzed hydrogen evolution from ammonia borane hydrolysis

Abstract Hydrolysis of ammonia borane (AB) is a safe, rapid and effcient catalytic method for H2 production. Herein, we reported a hierarchical architecture consisting of B, N-doped porous carbon nano-frameworks that encapsulate metallic cobalt nanoparticles and molybdenum oxides (Co,Mo@B,N-PCNSs) to enhance H2 production by hydrolysis of AB in the room temperature. The effects of Co content and calcination temperature in the composites on the generation of H2 has been thoroughly investigated, and the optimum catalyst was optimized. We found that the maximum H2 production volume was obtained in the presence of the composite with a Co loading of 30 wt% and calcined at 700 oC. This catalyst (activation energy of 26.6 KJ mol-1) is much more efficient than 3D cobalt-graphene composite catalyst (27.4 KJ mol-1) in Hydrogen generation, which exceeds the performance of previous reported some catalysts. Moreover, the catalyst is reusable and can be easily recycled using a hand-held magnet within 1 min. We believe that the present results provide important insights into the design and synthesis of efficient catalysts for H2 production, which is of significant importance for practical applications.