Graphene aerogel-supported ruthenium nanoparticles for COx-free hydrogen production from ammonia

Ruthenium was highly dispersed on graphene aerogel (GA) at high loadings to achieve high performance in COx-free hydrogen production from ammonia. Catalytic performance measurements on ammonia decomposition showed that the GA-supported catalyst with a Ru loading of 13.6 wt% provides an ammonia conversion of 71.5 % at a space-velocity of 30,000 ml NH3 gcat−1 h−1 and at 450 °C, corresponding to a hydrogen production rate of 21.9 mmol H2 gcat−1 min−1. The addition of K increased the ammonia conversion to a record high value of 97.6 % under identical conditions, reaching a hydrogen generation rate of 30.0 mmol H2 gcat−1 min−1, demonstrated to be stable for at least 80 h. A comparison of the turnover frequencies of catalysts indicated that this increase in performance upon the addition of K originated from an increase in the number of the active Ru sites and the corresponding electron density available for reaction.