CuCo2O4–NiO heterostructure catalysts for hydrogen production from ammonia borane

Abstract

Ammonia borane (NH3BH3, AB) has been considered as one of the most attractive candidates for chemical hydrogen-storage materials and chemical hydrogen generation materials. Development of low-cost and high-performance catalysts for hydrogen generation from AB is highly desirable, which is still a huge challenge. Hollow sphere CuCo2O4 promotes the catalytic hydrolysis of AB due to its unique hollow sphere shape and the synergistic effect of Co and Cu elements. In this study, a heterogeneous structured catalyst containing NiO and CuCo2O4 was developed by a simple and low-cost method in order to improve the catalytic performance of CuCo2O4. Initially, CuCo2O4 with hollow sphere structure was synthesized by hydrothermal method, and then NiO were deposited onto CuCo2O4 by impregnation-calcination method to form a heterogeneous structure. The CuCo2O4–NiO catalyst showed good catalytic activity for the hydrolysis of AB. The catalytic performance of CuCo2O4–NiO was then optimised by controlling the concentration of the impregnated salt solution, and the optimised catalytic performance was 1.42 times that of pure CuCo2O4 with a HER value of 870 mLH2gcat−1min−1. This low-cost CuCo2O4–NiO obtained by impregnation-calcination method is valuable for catalytic hydrogen production from AB.