Magnetic dendritic KCC-1 nanosphere-supported cobalt composite as a separable catalyst for hydrogen generation from NaBH4 hydrolysis

The introduction of magnetism into a catalyst can greatly optimize its separation performance. In the present work, a kind of magnetically separable catalysts for promoting NaBH4 hydrolysis have been fabricated by anchoring cobalt nanoparticles on magnetic dendritic KCC-1 nanospheres composed of magnetic Fe3O4 core and fibrous shell. The fabricated catalysts were characterized with various characterization methods, including absorption spectroscopy (AAS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high-resolution transmission electronic microscopy (HRTEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM), and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), etc. This kind of catalysts exhibit high catalytic activity for promoting the hydrolysis of NaBH4 under alkaline conditions, giving a hydrogen generation rate and activation energy of 3.83 L min−1 gCo−1 (30 °C) and 53.63 kJ mol−1, respectively. After used for 5 cycles, the catalyst showed 36.5% catalytic activity reserved. Most importantly, the magnetism of the catalyst made it easily separated and recycled from the solution after the reaction completed. The development of this kind of catalysts could provide a promising option for catalyzing NaBH4 hydrolysis for portable hydrogen production from.