Hierarchical porous cobalt/carbon hybrid anchored Ru-catalyzed ammonia-borane hydrolysis for efficient H2 release

Development of hierarchical architecture composed of heteroatom-doped porous carbon and earth-abundant transition metal for anchoring of noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) is essential but challengeable to improve catalytic performance for hydrogen production from ammonia-borane (AB) hydrolysis. In this study, we report the utilization of hierarchical porous nitrogen-doped carbon nanosheets encapsulated Co (Co-NC) synthesized by sodium chloride-template method for anchoring of Ru NPs toward hydrogen production from AB hydrolysis. The achieved Ru@Co-NC with an optimal Ru loading of 1.0 wt% delivers the highest catalytic activities with turnover frequencies of 568/1131 min-1 under aqueous/alkaline conditions at 25 celcius. The high performance for AB hydrolysis can be ascribed to the abundance of surface sites, fast mass/electron transfer and the electronic metalsupport interaction between ultrafine Ru NPs and Co-NC, which facilitate the oxidative cleavage of the O-H bonds in attacked H2O molecules (rate-determining step). Besides, this catalyst can be easily isolated by an external magnet and exhibits relatively good reusability with high maintained activity after five cycles. This work emphasizes the utilization of magnetically hierarchical architecture as support for noble metal NPs toward catalytic hydrogen generation.

Automated summary

This study demonstrates the utilization of hierarchical nitrogen-doped carbon nanosheets encapsulated Co as a support for Ru nanoparticles to enhance hydrogen production from AB hydrolysis. The catalyst shows high catalytic activity and good reusability.