Ultrafine palladium nanoparticles anchoring graphene oxide-ionic liquid grafted chitosan self-assembled materials: The novel organic-inorganic hybrid catalysts for hydrogen generation in hydrolysis of ammonia borane

The novel graphene oxide-ionic liquid grafted chitosan composites (denoted as GO-ILCS) are firstly prepared via a self-assembly process. Then, they are used to anchor ultrafine palladium nanoparticles by the in-situ reduction of palladium chloride with sodium borohydride. The resultant Pd(0)/GO-ILCS organic-inorganic hybrid catalysts are characterized by various techniques and used to catalyze the hydrolytic dehydrogenation of ammonia borane (NH 3 BH 3 , AB) under ambient conditions. The results reveal that the palladium nanoparticles are highly dispersed on GO-ILCS and the Pd(0)/GO-ILCS catalysts exhibit high catalytic activity and excellent reusability in the reaction. The turnover frequency (TOF) is as high as 25.6 mo l H 2 ·mo l Pd -1 ·mi n -1 and the catalytic activity does not decrease obviously after six runs. The orders of palladium and AB concentrations are 1.00 and 0.33 in the catalytic reaction , respectively. Notably, the activation energy of the reaction (Ea = 38 kJ mol −1 ) over the resultant catalysts is obviously lower than most of the palladium-based catalysts reported previously. It is expected the Pd(0)/GO-ILCS catalysts are of exciting potential in the field of hydrogen energy .