Coupling ultralow-content ruthenium with nickel hydroxide via corrosion engineering for highly efficient hydrogen generation from ammonia borane

Efficient and controllable release of hydrogen from solid hydrogen storage materials is a promising way to produce hydrogen safely and on-demand. The development of economical, highly active, easily recyclable catalysts is critical for practical applications, which remains a great challenging. Herein, the easily controllable and cost-effective corrosion strategy is ingeniously developed to simply prepare ultralow-content ruthenium coupled with nickel hydroxide on nickel foam (Ru-Ni-NF). After experiencing the spontaneous oxidation-reduction reactions between the reactive NF and Ru3+, ultrafine Ru nanoparticles decorated nickel hydroxide nanosheets are in situ intimately grown on porous NF networks. The optimal Ru-Ni-NF catalyst exhibits the excellent performance for catalytic hydrolysis of ammonia borane with a high turnover frequency (TOF) of 539.6 mol(H2) mol(Ru)(-1) min(-1) at 298 K and a low apparent activation energy of 36.4 kJ mol(-1), due to the synergistic effect between Ru nanoparticles and nickel hydroxide nanosheets. Furthermore, the Ru-Ni-NF catalyst possesses easy separation and outstanding durability, which is superior to powdered catalysts. This study provides a facile and economical strategy for the preparation of ultralow-content noble metal supported metal foam-type catalysts for dehydrogenation of ammonia borane. (c) 2022 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study presents an efficient and cost-effective corrosion strategy for the preparation of Ru-Ni-NF catalysts, which show excellent performance for the catalytic hydrolysis of ammonia borane. The catalyst exhibits easy separation and outstanding durability.