Manganese oxide octahedral molecular sieves stabilized Rh nanoparticles for the hydrogen production from the ethylenediamine-bisborane hydrolysis

Abstract

Ethylenediamine-bisborane (C2H14B2N2, BH3NH2CH2CH2NH2BH3, EDB), an important carbon derivative of ammonia-borane (AB), has come to the fore in recent years due to some disadvantages that limit the practical use of AB for the applications of hydrogen storage. EDB is a very promising chemical hydrogen storage material in the solid crystal form at room temperature, with a hydrogen content of 16.3% by weight, which decomposes rapidly at temperatures above 363 K. Despite all these superior features, studies on catalytic systems that catalyze the hydrogen production from the EDB are very few. In the present study, we report the synthesis, characterization, and application of manganese oxide octahedral molecular sieves (OMS-2) stabilized Rh nanoparticles (Rh@OMS-2) as highly efficient and reusable catalysts for the hydrogen production from the hydrolysis of EDB. The results of characterization using P-XRD, XPS, FT-IR, SEM, SEM-elemental mapping, TEM, HR-TEM, and ICP-OES disclose that Rh (0) nanoparticles were well spread on the surface of OMS-2 nanorods. Rh@OMS-2 showed a record catalytic activity in EDB hydrolysis with an initial turn-over frequency of 102.95 min−1 (6177 h−1) at 25 ± 0.1 °C, the highest value ever reported for the hydrolysis of EDB. In addition, the fact that the Rh@OMS-2 catalyst kept its initial activity at the end of the 7th cycle in the hydrolysis of EDB showed that the Rh@OMS-2 was reusable and stable heterogeneous catalyst in this catalytic transformation.