Highly efficient hydrolysis of ammonia borane using ultrafine bimetallic RuPd nanoalloys encapsulated in porous g-C3N4

Abstract

The hydrolysis of solid storage compounds including ammonia borane (NH3BH3) is promising for the upcoming hydrogen economy. So, developing highly efficient heterogeneous catalysts for the hydrolysis of ammonia borane is one of the key issues since this reaction is not kinetically feasible at room temperature. In this work, a facile adsorption-in situ reduction method is adopted to stabilize the ultrafine bimetallic RuPd nanoparticles on an ultrathin porous graphite carbon nitride. Due to the synergistic alloying effect, most of the resultant bimetallic Ru1-xPdx/g-C3N4 catalysts possess much higher catalytic activity than the monometallic Ru/g-C3N4 and Pd/g-C3N4 in the hydrolytic dehydrogenation of ammonia borane. Catalyzed by the optimal Ru0.85Pd0.15/g-C3N4, the turnover frequency and the apparent activation energy are 948.2 molH2·molCat-1·min-1 and 24.2 kJ mol−1, respectively, which are much superior to many catalysts previously reported. The high catalytic activity and satisfactory durability endow Ru0.85Pd0.15/g-C3N4 desirable potential in the hydrogen generation from the hydrolysis of chemical storage materials.