Synthesis of MOF-derived Co@C composites and application for efficient hydrolysis of sodium borohydride

Abstract Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have gained significant attention as precursors for the fabrication of porous hybrid materials. However, a systematic investigation into the preparation of MOF-derived composites with high catalytic performance for hydrolysis of NaBH4 is very limited. In this work, we report the fabrication of Co@C composites using Co-MOF as the starting precursor. Physicochemical properties of the as-prepared Co@C catalysts are well characterized by XRD, BET, SEM, XPS, and HRTEM. The results of catalytic performance tests show that the Co@C-700 catalyst exhibits optimal activity among the Co@C catalysts prepared at different carbonization temperatures and retains 93.1% of its initial catalytic activity after five cycles. The cobalt nanoparticles are found to be highly dispersed and encapsulated in porous carbon, which might be responsible to the good stability of Co@C catalyst.