Ternary Fe–Ni–B particles supported on Cu(OH)2–Cu foam: A highly efficient and stable catalyst for hydrolysis of ammonia borane

Ammonia borane (NH 3 BH 3 ) as a solid chemical hydrogen storage material with a high hydrogen content can be hydrolyzed under mild conditions to release hydrogen. In this work, Fe–Ni–B/Cu(OH) 2 –Cu foam was synthesized by combining in situ growth and electroless plating. Compared with the binary Fe–B/Cu(OH) 2 –Cu foam and Ni–B/Cu(OH) 2 –Cu foam prepared by the same method, the ternary Fe–Ni–B/Cu(OH) 2 –Cu foam has superior catalytic performance. The Fe–Ni–B/Cu(OH) 2 –Cu foam catalyst was able to achieve a maximum hydrogen production rate of 5.6 ml min −1 cm −2 at 298 K with an activation energy as low as 46.3 kJ mol −1 . And more importantly, its catalytic efficiency has hardly decayed after ten cycles. These excellent properties are due to its low activation energy and the large specific surface, multi–site Cu(OH) 2 –Cu–foam carrier.