Sea urchin-like nitrogen doped hierarchically carbon materials derived from bimetallic-MOF for fast and efficient hydrogen production of formic acid

Formic acid (FA) exists in chemical industrial waste water and has practical potential for renewable hydrogen production by FA dehydrogenation (FAD) for application in fuel cells. In this work, we employed a bimetallic-based MOF Al/Co-BTC (1,3, 5-trimeric acid) as precursor to fabricate a sea urchin-like spherical nitrogen-doped superstructure (V-NCR) with carbon nanorods (CNRs). The carbon material was activated in hot NaOH solution and then loaded with Pd nanoparticles for FAD. As a result, Pd@V-NCRB-800 exhibits a remarkable catalytic activity: the turnover frequency (TOF) value up to 20578 h−1 at 333 K with the 100 % H2 selectivity and excellent cyclic stability, which attributes to the numerous chemical contact sites provided by carbon materials, CNRs, and the modifying electronic interaction of N and Co species.