Borophene Oxide and Graphene Oxide for Renewable Energy: A Comparative Study on their Catalytic Performance in Sodium Borohydride Hydrolysis for Hydrogen Generation

The recent rise of borophene as a new 2D material has triggered competition with the well-known graphene. The present work serves as the first attempt to compare the efficiency of borophene oxide (BO) and graphene oxide (GO) in catalyzing NaBH₄ hydrolysis for hydrogen generation. For a fair comparison, the BO and GO particles are synthesized using the same improved Hummers’ method. Morphological studies show that both BO and GO appear in plate-like shapes; however, GO exhibits a more scrunched and rippled structure with larger interlayer spacing. BO and GO exhibit more oxygen-containing groups than their bulk counterparts. X-ray diffraction analysis indicates that BO has a reduced crystallinity, while GO exhibits turbostratic disorder. Regarding catalytic properties, both BO and GO are found to be on par as catalysts, increasing hydrogen yield from NaBH₄ hydrolysis by 25 times in 30 s, offering new insights for the clean energy industry.