In situ evolved defective TiO2 as robust support for CoB-catalyzed hydrolysis of NaBH4

Sodium borohydride (NaBH4) has been proposed to be a realizable hydrogen supplier for proton-exchange membrane fuel cell. Cobalt boride (CoB) is one of the most promising non-precious metal-based catalysts toward NaBH4 hydrolysis. In this work, we develop a facile method to synthesize defects-rich TiO2 supported CoB nanoparticles (CoB/TiO2-x). In this CoB/TiO2-x, an electronic metal-support interaction is induced by transferring electrons from the defective TiO2 to CoB to form electron-rich CoB particles, facilitating the hydrolysis of NaBH4. The as-synthesized CoB/TiO2-x catalyst shows a good catalytic performance with hydrogen generation rate of 3070 mL min−1 gCo−1 and activation energy of 57.03 kJ mol−1.