Facile construction of a highly dispersed PdCo nanocatalyst supported on NH2-UiO-66-derived N/O co-doped carbon for hydrogen evolution from formic acid

Abstract

Rational design of catalysts with a high activity and low cost is crucial but still challenging for formic acid (FA) as a hydrogen storage material. Herein, PdCo-bimetallic particles were evenly dispersed on N/O co-doped porous carbon, which is achieved through the one-step pyrolysis NH2-UiO-66 strategy. The evaluation test demonstrated that the prepared catalysts had high activity and selectivity for the decomposition of FA. The turnover frequency (TOF) of FA decomposition catalyzed by Pd4Co1/CN–O-800 at 30 °C was 2425 h−1 (TOF at 50 °C was 4587 h−1) and the selectivity of hydrogen was 100%. Structural characterizations combined with detailed theoretical calculation results reveal that the constructed N/O co-doped system endows the bimetallic catalyst with abundant catalytic sites and strong metal-support interaction, thereby achieving remarkable catalytic performance. The results provide ideas for the design of efficient FA dehydrogenation catalysts and offer theoretical guidance to N/O co-doped carbon materials.