An evidence for electron transfer of hydrolytic dehydrogenation of ammonia borane over ruthenium ultra-fine nanoparticles

Abstract

Hydrogen production from ammonia-borane hydrolysis has been widely studied for its high efficiency and many catalytic mechanisms with different viewpoints have been proposed. However, no attention has been paid to electron transfer during catalytic reactions to form H2 in these catalytic mechanisms. In the present contribution, we propose two possible electron transfer pathways for hydrogen production from AB hydrolysis, which were validated by hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) tests. The electrochemical characterization correlates with the AB hydrolysis test results, where Ru4/Fe–N–C catalyst has the largest active surface area and the smallest charge transfer resistance, along with the largest turnover frequency (298.7 molH2 molRu−1 min−1). These results indicate that Ru4/Fe–N–C catalyst not only provides the adsorption/desorption sites but also provides an effective approach for electron transfer in hydrogen production from AB hydrolysis.