Development of Cobalt based Nanocatalysts for Energy and Environment

There is a rising concern about energy and environment for future. Transition from current fossil fuels to green fuels and building of cleaner environment to lead sustainable life is at enormous task. Hydrogen gas is recognized as a clean fuel and may be a sustainable solution. Hydrogen can be directly used as clean fuel in fuel cells with no harmful by-products. Chemical hydrides with high hydrogen storage capacity in terms of gravimetric and volumetric efficiencies are the most promising candidates to supply pure hydrogen at room temperature. Among them, Ammonia Borane (NH3BH3, AB) and Sodium borohydride (NaBH4, SBH) have drawn a lot of interest as they are stable, non-flammable, and nontoxic. Large amount of pure hydrogen gas is released during the hydrolysis of these hydrides in presence of certain catalysts and the by-products are non-toxic, environmentally safe and can be recycled. Co based catalysts are considered as good candidates for catalyzed hydrolysis owing to their good catalytic activity, low cost and effortless synthesis. In favor of environmental concern, especially the air pollution (conversion of CO to CO2) and water pollutions (organic pollutants) are vital problems and there is a serious need to mitigate these problems. Cobalt (Co) based materials are with high catalytic activity for hydrolysis, organic pollutants degradation and CO oxidation. So, a single Co based catalysts as powders and as immobilized coatings prepared by chemical reduction method and pulsed laser deposition (PLD) were studied for hydrogen production by hydrolysis of AB and SBH and thin film coatings Co3O4 were studied for CO oxidation and organic pollutants degradation. On the basis of characterization results, the role of catalyst to enhance catalytic activity is discussed in hydrolysis, CO oxidation and pollutants degradation reactions. The stability and re-usability of these catalysts have also been investigated.