Thermo-controllable dehydrogenation of ammonia borane by luminescent and thermo-responsive catalysts based on SiO2@Pt@PABI-Tb@PNIPAM

In this paper, a luminescent and thermo-responsive catalyst based on SiO 2 @Pt@PABI-Tb@PNIPAM was prepared by incorporating Pt nanoparticles , luminescent material and mesoporous silica with thermo-responsive polymer. The obtained catalyst was characterized by IR, TGA, UV–vis, SEM, TEM, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and luminescence. The hybrid catalyst exhibits “on-off” green luminescence in solution under UV irradiation, which could be observed by eyes. The catalytic results indicate that the dehydrogenation of ammonia borane (AB) catalyzed by SiO 2 @Pt@PABI-Tb@PNIPAM is thermo-controllable and switchable. The SiO 2 @Pt@PABI-Tb@PNIPAM shows high catalytic activity for the generation of hydrogen at room temperature. However, it exhibits much lower catalytic activity at high temperature. The catalysts exhibit excellent durability because the support and polymer could prevent the aggregation and leaching of Pt nanoparticles during catalysis. The catalytic research offers a new approach to the thermo-controllable application in the generation of hydrogen from AB.