Supporting high-loading Ni on SBA-15 as highly active and durable catalyst for ammonia decomposition reaction

Although supported Ni is generally considered the most active non-noble metal catalyst for decomposing NH3 to produce COx-free H2, its activity is not sufficient. Herein, supporting high-loading Ni on SBA-15 is explored to alleviate the low intrinsic activity issue of Ni. SBA-15 supports with tunable textual properties are synthesized to support Ni catalyst for NH3 decomposition. Characterization shows that Ni catalyst with a loading close to 40 wt% supported on SBA-15 with the largest specific surface area (Ni/SBA-15-80) exhibits a NH3 decomposition performance much better than those reported on other Ni-based NH3 decomposition catalysts, resulting from its favorable textural properties and high Ni loading. In addition, Ni/SBA-15-80 shows excellent catalytic stability, with no activity degradation over an 80-h NH3 decomposition test. This work reveals the importance of textural properties of support and Ni loading to NH3 decomposition performance and can provide a new idea for synthesizing high-performance NH3 decomposition catalysts.