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Room-temperature hydrogen generation by Mg hydrolysis provides an economical strategy for on-site hydrogen supply with high capacity and environmentally friendly by-products. However, slow reaction kinetics hinders the upscaling of this technology. In this study, a low-cost Mo2C catalyst was ball milled with Mg to produce a Mg–Mo2C composite, which can be easily scaled up for manufacturing. The resulting composite exhibited rapid hydrolysis in seawater, generating over 851 mL g−1 hydrogen in 10 min. Moreover, Mo2C maintained a high catalytic activity after recycling, and a hydrogen yield of over 90% after five cycles. The catalytic mechanism study indicated that the micro galvanic cell and well-combined Mg–Mo2C interface formed during ball milling significantly enhanced the hydrolysis performance. Therefore, this work provides a cost-efficient and easy scale-up strategy for modifying Mg hydrolysis kinetics and opens new avenues for studying the relationship between material hydrolysis and hydrogen evolution reaction catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SnO2 nanoparticles have been synthesized by a novel route of a sol-gel method assisted with biomimetic assembly using L-leucine as a biotemplate. The microstructure of as-prepared SnO2 nanoparticles was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR), and Brunner−Emmet−Teller (BET) measurements. The results demonstrated that the growth of SnO2 could be regulated by L-leucine at a high calcination temperature. The electrochemical performance of SnO2 was also measured as anodes for lithium-ion battery. It is a guidance for the growth regulation of SnO2 at high temperature to obtain SnO2/C with nanosized SnO2 coated by a graphitic carbon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silicon has emerged as a competitive candidate for hydrolytic hydrogen production due to its high theoretical hydrogen yield, low cost, and on-demand availability. However, the hydrolysis reaction is extremely restrained by passivated SiO 2 , including the original one on the Si surface and the generated one during hydrolysis, and almost no hydrogen is produced in pure water. Herein, the original SiO 2 surface has been effectively removed by milling micro-Si mixed with a small amount of Li metal and NaCl. An artificial soluble interface on Si has been established containing Li 2 SiO 3 , Li, and NaCl. Once micro-Si is placed into water, fresh Si surface can be exposed and a weak LiOH solution can be generated due to the fast dissolution of the interface layer, resulting in the rapid liberation of hydrogen gas. Accordingly, the modified micro-Si displays a significantly enhanced hydrogen production in pure water at 30 °C (1213 mL g -1 H 2 within 3.0 h), which is 2.0 and 4.7 times higher than that observed for ball-milled Si and raw Si in 0.06 M LiOH solution, respectively. In addition, it also exhibited an outstanding operation compatibility for practical uses. This work has proposed a green, effective, and scalable strategy to promote hydrogen production from the hydrolysis of Si-based systems.

SnO 2 nanoparticles have been synthesized by a novel route of a sol-gel method assisted with biomimetic assembly using L-leucine as a biotemplate. The microstructure of as-prepared SnO 2 nanoparticles was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR), and Brunner-Emmet-Teller (BET) measurements. The results demonstrated that the growth of SnO 2 could be regulated by L-leucine at a high calcination temperature. The electrochemical performance of SnO 2 was also measured as anodes for lithium-ion battery. It is a guidance for the growth regulation of SnO 2 at high temperature to obtain SnO 2 /C with nanosized SnO 2 coated by a graphitic carbon.