Bacterial cellulose derived carbon as a support for catalytically active Co–B alloy for hydrolysis of sodium borohydride

Abstract The fast release of hydrogen from borohydride is highly desired for a fuel cell system. However, the generation of hydrogen from borohydride is limited by the low activity and low stability of the catalyst. Herein, a highly active catalyst is synthesized through a simple one-step chemical reduction using bacterial cellulose (BC) derived carbon as a support for the active Co–B alloy. The morphology and microstructure of the BC/Co–B nanocomposite are characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, and BET adsorption analysis. The BC/Co–B possesses high surface area (125.31 m2 g−1) high stability and excellent catalytic activity for the hydrolysis of NaBH4. Compared with unsupported Co–B nanocomposite or commercial carbon supported Co–B, the BC/Co–B nanocomposite shows greatly improved catalytic activity for the hydrolysis of NaBH4 with a high hydrogen generation rate of 3887.1 mL min−1 g−1 at 30 °C. An activation energy of 56.37 kJ mol−1 was achieved for the hydrolysis reaction. Furthermore, the BC/Co–B demonstrated excellent stability. These results indicate that the BC/Co–B nanocomposite is a promising candidate for the hydrolysis of borohydrides.