Hydrogen production on CoFe, CoFeMn and CoFeMo coatings deposited on Ni foam via electroless metal plating

In this study, the catalytic hydrogen generation was evaluated on the cobalt–iron (CoFe), cobalt–iron–manganese (CoFeMn) and cobalt–ironmolybdenum (CoFeMo) coatings deposited on the Ni foam substrate using the electroless metal plating method and morpholine borane as the reducing agent. The characterisation of the surface morphology, structure and composition of resulted coatings was done using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). The catalytic activity of the prepared CoFe/Ni, CoFeMn/Ni and CoFeMo/Ni catalysts was investigated for hydrogen generation from an alkaline sodium borohydride (NaBH4) solution at different temperatures. It was found that the hydrogen generation rate of ca. 5.2, 7.8 and 11.7 L min–1 g–1 was achieved by using the CoFe/ Ni, CoFeMo/Ni and CoFeMn/Ni coatings, respectively, at 343 K. Among the investigated catalysts, CoFeMn/Ni exhibits the lowest activation energy of 62.4 kJ mol–1 and the highest HGR of 11.7 L min–1 g–1 at 343 K.