Enhanced catalytic behavior of h-BN supported CuNi bimetallic catalysts in hydrolytic dehydrogenation of NH3BH3

The hydrolysis of ammonia borane (NH 3 BH 3 , AB) is an efficient strategy for high-purify hydrogen evolution . However, it is indispensable to develop a suitable catalyst because this reaction is kinetically infeasible at room temperature . In this work, we prepared a series of nano hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) supported CuNi bimetallic catalysts through a facile adsorption-chemical reduction procedure. The effects of various molar ratios of Cu to Ni and CuNi loadings on AB hydrolysis were investigated in details. Benefitting from the proper porous structure , the interesting alloy effect of Cu and Ni, as well as the synergistic effect between h-BN and CuNi, 20 wt% Cu 0.5 Ni 0.5 /h-BN displays the highest catalytic activity among the as-prepared catalysts. Apart from satisfactory durability, the corresponding hydrogen generation rate, turnover frequency at 303 K in base solution and apparent activation energy are 2437.0 mL g −1 min −1 , 6.33 min −1 and 23.02 kJ mol −1 , respectively, which are very outstanding compared with many previous results. Our work not only provides a proper non-precious metal catalyst for hydrogen generation from the hydrolysis of chemical hydrogen storage materials but also offers a facile strategy for synthesizing metallic functional materials .