Bimetallic palladium–iridium alloy nanoparticles as highly efficient and stable catalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract Addressed herein, a highly efficient, durable and uniformly dispersed activated carbon supported palladium–iridium nanomaterials (3.42 ± 0.34 nm) were reported for the first time as a catalyst in dimethylamine-borane dehydrogenation reaction at the room temperature. The activated carbon supported palladium-iridium nanosheet (Pd–Ir NPs) is obtained by a simple ultrasonic reduction method, and the fabricated nanocatalyst have been defined by Ultra-Violet-Visible (UV–VIS), Raman spectroscopy, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HR-TEM). These newly prepared Pd–Ir nanocomposites were found to be highly efficient and stable for dehydrocoupling of dimethylamine borane. The catalytic activity of the Pd–Ir NPs was excellent by showing the one of the best catalytic activity with a very high turnover frequency (295.1 h−1) and low Ea value of 36.6 ± 2 kJ/mol for DMAB dehydrocoupling. Another important fact about the prepared catalyst is the reusability of the catalyst was very high and easily reused five times without any significant decrease in their catalytic performance. In the current work, the synthesize, characterization and the catalytic performance of the Pd–Ir nanoparticles for the dehydrogenation of the DMAB reaction will be discussed in detail.