Abstract
Catalytic hydrolysis of ammonia borane (AB) has been considered as an effective and safe method to generate hydrogen. Development of highly active and low-cost catalysts is one of the key tasks for this technology. In this work, hexagonal CuCo2O4 nanoplatelets with a thickness of approximately 55 nm were prepared. In AB hydrolysis, those nanoplatelets exhibited ultrahigh catalytic activity with turnover frequency (TOF) of 73.4 molhydrogen min−1 molcat−1. As far as we know, this is one of the highest TOF values ever reported for non-noble metal catalysts. In addition, the effects of viscosity and different alkalis on the hydrolysis were also investigated. It is revealed that high viscosity of the reaction medium will retard the hydrolysis reaction. The presence of NaOH, KOH, and Na2CO3 in the reaction solution is favorable for hydrolytic process. In contrast, NH3·H2O will slow down the hydrolysis rate of ammonia borane. This work can provide some novel insight into the design of catalysts with both high performance and low cost. Besides, some findings in the present study can also offer us some information about how to improve the hydrolysis rates by optimizing the hydrolysis condition.
Highlights
Hydrolysis of ammonia borane (AB) is a very promising way to provide hydrogen for mobile hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells [1,2,3], which can find many important applications in new energy vehicles in the near future
Hexagonal CuCo2O4 nanoplatelets with a thickness of about 55 nm were prepared by a hydrothermal approach followed by a calcination process
We have found that the active species of Cu0.6Ni0.4Co2O4 in AB hydrolysis is metallic Co, Ni, and Cu on the catalyst surface, which were formed by the reduction of Cu0.6Ni0.4Co2O4 with AB [2]
Summary
Hydrolysis of ammonia borane (AB) is a very promising way to provide hydrogen for mobile hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells [1,2,3], which can find many important applications in new energy vehicles in the near future. Since Xu’s pioneering works on AB hydrolysis catalyzed by transition metals was reported [4,5], a number of heterogeneous catalysts have been developed for that hydrolytic reaction [6,7,8,9,10,11]. Among these catalysts, noble metal based catalysts are too expensive despite their high catalytic performance [6,7,8]. It is of importance for us to know the impact of the viscosity to hydrolysis reaction
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