Enhanced hydrolysis of NaBH4 using cobalt sulphide for hydrogen production

The generation of pollution free hydrogen through NaBH4 hydrolysis using the suitable low cost catalysts is promising technique for sustainable green energy production. Herein, we report the facile synthesis of cobalt sulphide (CoS) using the hydrothermal technique and catalysed hydrolysis of NaBH4 for hydrogen generation. CoS nanoparticles show obvious catalytic performance with hydrogen generation rate (HGR) of 328 mL min−1 g−1cat at 25 °C in 2.9 % (1.5 g) NaBH4. Importantly, owing to low activation energy for hydrolysis of about 58.8 kJ mol−1 and efficient hydrolysis, CoS nanoparticles enables the NaBH4 hydrolysis with HGR of 319 mL min−1 g−1cat at 50 °C with 0.1 g NaBH4. The HGR is significantly enhanced from 119 mL min−1 g−1cat in dark to 214 mL min−1 g−1cat in illumination with 0.5 g NaBH4 and 60 mg catalysts. Finally, the present findings advocate the development of sulphide based non-precious catalysts for solar light driven hydrolysis of NaBH4.