Cobalt ferrite supported platinum nanoparticles: Superb catalytic activity and outstanding reusability in hydrogen generation from the hydrolysis of ammonia borane

Serdar Akbayrak; Saim Özkar

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2021.03.039

Cobalt ferrite supported platinum nanoparticles: Superb catalytic activity and outstanding reusability in hydrogen generation from the hydrolysis of ammonia borane

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2021 Aug 15:596:100-107. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.03.039. Epub 2021 Mar 15.

Authors

Serdar Akbayrak¹, Saim Özkar²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Middle East Technical University, 06800 Ankara, Turkey; Department of Chemistry, Sinop University, 57000 Sinop, Turkey.
² Department of Chemistry, Middle East Technical University, 06800 Ankara, Turkey.

PMID: 33838323
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.03.039

Abstract

In this work, platinum(0) nanoparticles are deposited on the surface of magnetic cobalt ferrite forming magnetically separable Pt⁰/CoFe₂O₄ nanoparticles, which are efficient catalysts in H₂ generation from the hydrolysis of ammonia borane. Catalytic activity of Pt⁰/CoFe₂O₄ nanoparticles decreases with the increasing platinum loading, parallel to the average particle size. Pt⁰/CoFe₂O₄ (0.23% wt. Pt) nanoparticles have an average diameter of 2.30 ± 0.47 nm and show an extraordinary turnover frequency of 3628 min^-1 in releasing 3.0 equivalent H₂ per mole of ammonia borane from the hydrolysis at 25.0 °C. Moreover, the magnetically separable Pt⁰/CoFe₂O₄ nanoparticles possess high reusability retaining 100% of their initial catalytic activity even after ten runs of hydrolysis. The superb catalytic activity and outstanding reusability make the Pt⁰/CoFe₂O₄ nanoparticles very attractive catalysts for the hydrogen generation systems in portable and stationary fuel cell applications.

Keywords: Ammonia borane; Catalysis; Cobalt ferrite; Hydrogen release; Platinum nanoparticles.