Dehydrogenation of ammonia borane by dealloyed ruthenium catalysts

Abstract

In this work, ruthenium catalysts were obtained by alloying-dealloying approach and used in the dehydrogenation reaction of ammonia borane. Ruthenium and aluminum were sputtered simultaneously and aluminum was etched from the alloy by dealloying with sodium hydroxide. The resulting catalysts were analyzed with TEM, SEM, and Zeta-Sizer. Aluminum sputtering power was found to be effective on the catalytic activity of the catalysts. Moreover, the highest turnover frequency was calculated as 290.9 min−1. Also, the activation energy of the dehydrogenation reaction of ammonia borane with Ru particles was found to be 18.43 kJ mol−1. Furthermore, the catalysts could conserve their performance upto 10 consecutive runs.