Ni–CoP catalyst for efficient and robust NaBH4 hydrolysis

Hydrogen fuel is a non-toxic and source-abundant energetic system, but for its applications in the industry, several issues related to its storage must be resolved. Compounds like NaBH4 appear as promising hydrogen sources, while can release the latter rapidly under controllable conditions with the use of heterogeneous catalyst systems. In this work, we synthesized a Ni–CoP catalyst by electrodeposition in a three-step process on carbon paper as support. The materials were characterized via SEM-EDS, XRD, and XPS techniques, while the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) from alkaline NaBH4 solutions was tested as a batch experiment. Ni–CoP catalyst showed a high amount of H2 generated in a short time (∼550 mL in 1 min) and remained at 78 and 54% of its initial performance after respectively 100 and 300 h of a continuous hydrolysis process. Our catalyst revealed exceptional performance and stability at higher temperatures and a long process time, which have been a rare subject of investigation in other reports for NaBH4 hydrolysis in the past. This work paves a new perspective in studying catalysts for hydrogen generation from borohydrides.