Facile construction of composition-tuned ruthenium-nickel nanoparticles on g-C3N4 for enhanced hydrolysis of ammonia borane without base additives. (23rd March 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wang, Ziqian; Chen, Yalan; He, Yating; Jiang, Weidong; Long, Yan; Fan, Guangyin
• Is Part Of: International journal of hydrogen energy. Volume 46:Number 21(2021)
• Page Start: 11587
• Page End: 11596
• Publication Date: 2021-03-23
• Subjects: Ruthenium -- Nickel -- Alloys -- Synergistic effect -- Ammonia borane -- Hydrogen production; Hydrogen as fuel -- Periodicals; Hydrogène (Combustible) -- Périodiques; Hydrogen as fuel; Periodicals; 665.81
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2020.12.199
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0360-3199

Abstract

Abstract: Developing high-efficiency and low-cost catalysts for hydrogen evolution from hydrolysis of ammonia borane (AB) is significant and critical for the exploitation and utilization of hydrogen energy. Herein, the in-situ fabrication of well-dispersed and small bimetallic RuNi alloy nanoparticles (NPs) with tuned compositions and concomitant hydrolysis of AB are successfully achieved by using graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3 N4 ) as a NP support without additional stabilizing ligands. The optimized Ru1 Ni7.5 /g-C3 N4 catalyst exhibits an excellent catalytic activity with a high turnover frequency of 901 min −1 and an activation energy of 28.46 kJ mol −1 without any base additives, overtaking the activities of many previously reported catalysts for AB hydrolysis. The kinetic studies indicate that the AB hydrolysis over Ru1 Ni7.5 /g-C3 N4 is first-order and zero-order reactions with respect to the catalyst and AB concentrations, respectively. Ru1 Ni7.5 /g-C3 N4 has a good recyclability with 46% of the initial catalytic activity retained even after five runs. The high performance of Ru1 Ni7.5 /g-C3 N4 should be assigned to the small-sized alloy NPs with abundant accessible active sites and the synergistic effect between the composition-tuned Ru–Ni bimetals. This work highlights a potentially powerful and simple strategy for preparing highly active bimetallic alloy catalysts for AB hydrolysis to generate hydrogen. Highlights: Composition tuned RuNi/g-C3 N4 catalysts were in situ formed during AB hydrolysis. The optimized Ru1 Ni7.5 /g-C3 N4 exhibited an excellent activity for AB hydrolysis. A high turnover frequency of 901 min −1 was obtained without any base additives. This catalyst maintained 46% of the initial catalytic activity even after five runs.