Pd-doped Cu nanoparticles confined by ZIF-67@ZIF-8 for efficient dehydrogenation of ammonia borane

To exploit the low-cost and efficient catalyst for the hydrolytic dehydrogenation of ammonia borane, trace amount of palladium-doped transition metal (Cu, Ni, Co, Fe and Zn) nanoparticles have been incorporated into the interior of metal-organic frameworks named ZIF-8, ZIF-67, ZIF-67/ZIF-8 and core-shell [email protected] by a double-solvent approach. The optimized catalyst of CuPd0.01@[email protected] composite exhibited an excellent activity with a turnover frequency (TOF) value of 30.15 mol H2 (molmetal)−1 min−1 at 298 K and a relatively low activation energy of 38.78 kJ mol−1. It might attributed to both ultrafine size of metal nanoparticles (~3 nm) induced by the confinement of core-shell [email protected] and the synergistic effect between Pd and Cu. Moreover, the detailed kinetic study has manifested that this catalytic reaction is first-order in regards to the catalyst amount while zero-order as for the concentration of ammonia borane. In addition, the durability and recyclability of CuPd0.01@[email protected] have been demonstrated to be great.