g-C3N4 particles with boron and oxygen dopants/carbon vacancies for efficient dehydrogenation in sodium borohydride methanolysis

In the study, metal-free boron and oxygen incorporated graphitic carbon nitride (B and O doped g-C3N4) with carbon vacancy was successfully prepared and applied as a catalyst to the dehydrogenation of sodium borohydride (NaBH4) in methanol for the first time. The hydrogen generation rate (HGR) value was found to be 11,600 mL min−1g−1 by NaBH4 of 2.5%. This is 2.53 times higher than the g-C3N4 catalyst without the addition of B and O. The obtained activation energy was 25.46 kJ mol−1. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-Ray analyser (EDX), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analyses for characterization were performed. A possible mechanism of H2 production from the reaction using metal-free B and O doped g-C3N4 catalyst with carbon vacancy has been proposed. This study showed that g-C3N4 and its composites with doping atoms can be used effectively in H2 production by NaBH4 methanolysis.