Effective hydrolysis of NH3BH3 for hydrogen evolution by the novel graphene quantum dots loaded bimetallic nanoparticles (Pt-Co/GQDs)

Utilizing the low-cost catalysts with excellent catalytic activities to replace the expensive ones for H 2 evolution still faces great challenges. It is significant to design the new catalysts with the synergistic effect to improve the activities and decrease the cost of the applications. Herein, the novel nanocatalyst of graphene quantum dots loaded bimetallic nanoparticles (Pt-Co/GQDs) has been synthesized for the H 2 evolution from hydrolysis of amine borane (AB) for the first time. The result indicates that the Pt-Co/GQDs nanocatalyst holds the better catalytic activities than Pt/GQDs, exhibiting the bimetallic synergies in the hydrolysis process. The synthesized catalyst has been characterized by various measurements, such as TEM, XPS, EDS, UV–Vis, and PL spectra. The effect of the catalyst on the hydrolysis of AB is investigated. It is demonstrated that the value of total turnover frequencies (TOFs) can arrive to 520 mol H 2 ·mol Pt −1 ·min −1 via the catalyst designing, which is very high in comparison with other reported catalysts. This work has developed an effective nanocatalyst with a lower cost which is never reported in the hydrolysis of AB, possessing both great significance and huge potential in the H 2 evolution by hydrolysis of the hydrogen storage materials.