One-pot synthesis of magnetic copper ferrite nanocubes for hydrogen production by hydrolysis of sodium borohydride

This work describes the hydrogen production from sodium borohydride (NaBH4) hydrolysis over the homogenous copper ferrite (CuFe2O4) nanocubes which were produced by one-pot approach without using any surfactant. The CuFe2O4 nanocubes have a dimension of about 100 nm in size. X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used to characterize the morphology, structure, and phase of the sample. The magnetic CuFe2O4 nanocubes were utilized in the hydrolysis of NaBH4 to produce hydrogen, and demonstrated good catalytic activity and recyclability. The rate of hydrogen production of 10 wt% NaBH4 hydrolysis reached up to 1.5 L/min/g at 303 K over CuFe2O4 nanocubes, which is substantially greater than in other shaped CuFe2O4 materials. In the hydrogen generation process, the effects of NaOH concentration, NaBH4 concentration, and reaction temperature were also investigated. Magnetic CuFe2O4 nanocubes show a comparatively low activation energy of 41.53 kJ/mol, according to the kinetic analyses. Hence, the uniform CuFe2O4 nanocubes have much potential in hydrolysis for hydrogen generation.