Poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone)-stabilized ruthenium supported on bamboo leaf-derived porous carbon for NH3BH3 hydrolysis

In this work, poly( N -vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) (PVP)-stabilized ruthenium nanoparticles (NPs) supported on bamboo leaf-derived porous carbon (Ru/BC) has been synthesized via a one-step procedure. The structure and morphology of the as-synthesized samples were characterized by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectrometry (XPS), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). As a catalyst for hydrogen generation from the hydrolysis of ammonia-borane (AB, NH 3 BH 3 ) at room temperature, Ru/BC stabilized with 1 mg of PVP exhibited high activity (TOF = 718 mol H2 ·mol Ru −1 ·min −1 ) and low activation energy ( E a  = 22.8 kJ mol −1 ). In addition, the catalyst could be easily recovered and showed fairly good recyclability with 55.6% of the initial catalytic activity retained after ten experimental cycles, which confirmed that PVP could stabilize the Ru NPs and prevent their agglomeration on BC surface. Our results suggest that PVP-stabilized Ru/BC is a highly efficient catalyst for the hydrolysis of AB.