High dehydrogenation of ammonia borane by core-shell heterostructure catalysts formed by carbon template-assisted synthesis

• Published in: New journal of chemistry Vol. 47; no. 48; pp. 2235 - 22359
• Main Authors: Zheng, Hui-Ling, Zhang, Zi-Hao, Feng, Chen-Gang, Zhu, Hong-Lin, Zheng, Yue-Qing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Royal Society of Chemistry 11.12.2023
• Subjects: Ammonia; Boranes; Carbon; Catalysts; Catalytic activity; Chemical synthesis; Cobalt; Dehydrogenation; Dispersion; Heterostructures; Hydrogen production; Nanoalloys; Nanoparticles; Noble metals
• ISSN: 1144-0546; 1369-9261
• DOI: 10.1039/d3nj03802e

The development of non-noble metal catalysts that exhibit high performance in the dehydrogenation of ammonia borane has been considered a safe and efficient method for hydrogen generation. In this study, a series of Cu x Co y alloy nanoparticles with different ratios were highly dispersed on a core-shell microsphere carrier, and the carrier was prepared using carbon spheres as a template. The catalytic activity for H 2 from ammonia borane (NH 3 BH 3 , AB) hydrolysis was investigated by adjusting the ratio of Cu 2+ to Co 2+ doping in the catalyst. The Co 1 Cu 1 /C@Cu 0.76 Co 2.24 O 4 core-shell heterostructure catalyst shows excellent catalytic activity with a high turnover frequency (TOF) value of 82.58 mol H 2 mol cat −1 min −1 and a low activation energy ( E a ) of 16.06 kJ mol −1 . Detailed analysis indicates that the outstanding activity of AB for hydrolytic dehydrogenation could be attributed to the unique core-shell hetero-structures and high dispersion of the CuCo alloy nanoparticles. Core-shell microsphere heterostructure carrier C@Cu 0.76 C0 2.24 O 4 was prepared using a carbon sphere as template, and the CuCo alloy nanoparticles were reduced on the surface of carrier to obtain the catalyst Co x Cu y /C@Cu 0.76 Co 2.24 O 4 for ammonia borane hydrolytic dehydrogenation.