F-doped CeO2 supported Co-based nanoparticles for enhanced photocatalytic H2 evolution from ammonia borane

Doping as a common mean to generate defects to boost the catalytic performance of metal oxide semiconductor-based materials has aroused great interest. However, doping usually requires high temperatures and is time consuming. Herein, we report a facile strategy for the preparation of F doped CeO2 (F-CeO2) with assistance of the electrostatic attraction between F- and CeO2 with oxygen vacancies at room temperature, then F-CeO2 acts as superior support of metal Co nanoparticles (NPs) for efficient hydrolysis of NH3BH3 under light irradiation. The activity of Co/F-CeO2 is significantly enhanced and Co/F-CeO2-0.6 exhibited highest catalytic activity with TOF value 92.8 min-1 which increases 47% compared with Co/CeO2. Experimental and characterization results show the enhanced performance attributes to high efficiency photogenerated carrier separation and boosting adsorption capacity of H2O and NH3BH3 over Co/F-CeO2 due to F doped into CeO2 crys-tallites. Furthermore, theory calculations further confirm that the band gap of F-CeO2 becomes smaller and F-CeO2 is more favorable the adsorption for H2O and NH3BH3 than pure CeO2. This work offers a facile and time efficiency strategy to realize controllable element doped in metal oxide under ambient, and gives deep insights into the structure-activity relationship of catalyst between defect engineering and photocatalytic performance.(c) 2022 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.