Super Nanoteragonal ZrO2 Embedded in Carbon as Efficient Support of PdAg Nanoparticle for Boosting Hydrogen Generation from Formic Acid

Abstract

AbstractThe application of formic acid (FA) as a safe, renewable and promising hydrogen‐storage material has received considerable attention. However, exploring efficient heterogeneous catalysts for selective dehydrogenation of FA remains a challenging topic. In this paper, a super nanoteragonal ZrO2 (The crystallite size reached even 150 nm) is synthesized by calcining Zr‐based metal‐organic framework. Because the unique microstructures of the material which possess the electron‐rich property and surface basicity, the resulting PdAg@ZrO2/C catalyst exhibits excellent activity (Turnover frequency 9206 h−1 at 50 °C) for the decomposition of FA. These results may contribute to the design of efficient catalysts for dehydrogenation of FA and extended applications of tetragonal zirconia polycrysta without the dopants or reduction of the crystallite size.