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Hydrogen (H2) is a new type of renewable energy that can meet people's growing energy needs and is environmentally friendly. In order to improve the industrial application prospects and electrochemical performance of hydrogen evolution catalysts, extensive research on transition metal materials has been carried out. Among the many catalytic materials, cobalt is an element with potential for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) due to its abundant reserves, low cost, and small energy barrier for H adsorption. This review classifies the latest research on cobalt-based catalysts according to the types of compound, including cobalt-based sulfides, phosphides, carbides, borides, oxides, etc., and summarizes the latest research progress of cobalt-based compound catalysts in acidic and alkaline media. Strategies to tune the properties of cobalt-based compound catalysts for high catalytic activity for HER are focused on, including structural engineering, defect engineering, and doping, etc. The advantages and limitations of each modified approach are reviewed. Not only that, but also the catalytic activity and advantages of the catalyst are evaluated by using density functional theory (DFT) calculation-related descriptors, activity evaluation parameters, etc. Finally, limitations and challenges of cobalt-based materials for HER are presented, as well as prospects for future research. This paper aims to understand the chemical and physical factors that affect cobalt-based catalysts, and to find directions for future research on cobalt-based catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of photocatalytic hydrogen evolution is increasing in energy research and environmental catalysis. Co-MOF, a metal–organic framework compound with a zeolite topological structure, has the advantage of being a semiconductor in photocatalytic applications. The new composite materials constructed by coupling Co-MOF with traditional semiconductors will significantly stimulate the potential of photocatalysis due to the construction of a heterogeneous interface. We accurately controlled the growth of Co-MOF with different morphologies by adjusting the ratio of raw materials. With the increase of dimethylimidazole, hexagonal prism morphology (Co-MOF-H), leaf morphology (Co-MOF-B), and Daisy morphology (Co-MOF-D) were successively synthesized. The experimental results show that H-g-C3N4 has the best catalytic activity when adsorbing hexagonal prism Co-MOF. When the ratio of H-g-C3N4 reached 125 mg, the optimal hydrogen evolution activity reached 1033 μmol g−1 h−1. Various characterization methods were used to explain the influence of morphology regulation on the hydrogen evolution ability of Co-MOF and explore the mechanism of hydrogen evolution of Co-MOF/H-g-C3N4 composite catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, much attention has been focused on the development of photocatalysts for hydrogen evolution. Up to now, efficient hydrogen generation is still greatly challenging due to the restraints of the surface redox reaction rate, and the introduction of a co-catalyst is one of the keys to this problem. Here, dual non-noble co-catalysts NixP and Mn3O4 were proposed and prepared on a g-C3N4/red phosphorus (CNP) hybrid structure with a high light adsorption capability by a two-step photo-deposition method. The photo-excited charge on the composite catalyst separate and transfer from C3N4 to red phosphorous due to a type I heterojunction structure. NixP and Mn3O4 act as reductive and oxidative co-catalysts, respectively. The hydrogen production rate was 5851.3 μmol g−1 h−1, 12.4 times that of pure CNP. The consistent catalytic activity in an actual 25 mL flask for hydrogen evolution over eight hours accumulated 245.08 μmol H2 under solar simulated irradiation. This work provides practical reference for the development of a novel inexpensive photocatalyst system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ag-based materials have features of low-cost and abundance in comparison with Pt-group metals, while their catalytic performance for hydrogen release from ammonia borane (AB) hydrolysis is relatively low. Herein, we report an activity improvement in hydrogen evolution from catalytic AB hydrolysis over a zeolitic imidazolate framework-67-derived Co@CN anchored Ag nanoparticle (NP) catalyst. Attributed to the rich N-dopant and spatial confinement of the Co@CN, small Ag NPs are uniformly distributed on the support (AgCo@CN). The obtained AgCo@CN exhibits excellent catalytic activity with a high turnover frequency of 282.8 min−1 for AB hydrolysis, outperforming most of the reported Ag-based catalysts and comparable to many Pt-group metal catalysts. The well-distributed Ag NPs with small sizes and the synergistic effect between Ag and Co@CN facilitate the oxidative cleavage of O–H in H2O molecules and thereby contribute to the boosted catalytic activity of AgCo@CN for AB hydrolysis. This strategy can be extended to synthesize other supported metal NPs with high efficiency for catalytic utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]