Highly Dispersed Surfactant-Free Amorphous NiCoB Nanoparticles and Their Remarkable Catalytic Activity for Hydrogen Generation from Ammonia Borane Dehydrogenation

Abstract The effective storage and generation of hydrogen at room temperature is an important issue in many areas, including alternative energy. In this work, NiCoB nanoalloys with high B contents, clean surfaces, and good dispersions are synthesized by an in-situ reduction method. The NiCoB catalyst with high B content exhibits significantly more excellent catalytic activity for hydrogen generation from the hydrolytic of ammonia borane than NiCoB catalyst with low B content. The remarkable catalytic performance is attributed to the strong electronic interaction between the incorporated B and the active metal sites of Co and Ni, the clean surface and good dispersion of the catalyst. Basically, the physical and catalytic properties of the catalyst take advantage of the selection of reductant used during the in-situ synthesis of the NiCoB nanoalloys. This work demonstrates that this facile synthetic method is a promising avenue for the rational design of various B incorporated metal catalysts for hydrogen energy exploitation, metal/air batteries, and electrochemical sensors. Graphical Abstract