Ruthenium nanoparticles confined in SBA-15 as highly efficient catalyst for hydrolytic dehydrogenation of ammonia borane and hydrazine borane

Ultrafine ruthenium nanoparticles (NPs) within the mesopores of the SBA-15 have been successfully prepared by using a double solvents method, in which n-hexane is used as a hydrophobic solvent and RuCl3 aqueous solution is used as a hydrophilic solvent. After the impregnation and reduction processes, the samples were characterized by XRD, TEM, EDX, XPS, N-2 adsorption-desorption, and ICP techniques. The TEM images show that small sized Ru NPs with an average size of 3.0 +/- 0.8 nm are uniformly dispersed in the mesopores of SBA-15. The as-synthesized Ru@SBA-15 nanocomposites (NCs) display exceptional catalytic activity for hydrogen generation by the hydrolysis of ammonia borane (NH3BH3, AB) and hydrazine borane (N2H4BH3, HB) at room temperature with the turnover frequency (TOF) value of 316 and 706 mol H-2 (mol Ru min) (1), respectively, relatively high values reported so far for the same reaction. The activation energies (Ea) for the hydrolysis of AB and HB catalyzed by Ru@SBA-15 NCs are measured to be 34.8 +/- 2 and 41.3 +/- 2 kJ mol(-1), respectively. Moreover, Ru@SBA-15 NCs also show satisfied durable stability for the hydrolytic dehydrogenation of AB and HB, respectively.