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

Abstract

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 molH2 molRu−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.