Pd-Co2P nanoparticles supported on N-doped biomass-based carbon microsheet with excellent catalytic performance for hydrogen evolution from formic acid

Abstract Formic acid (FA) is widely regarded as a hydrogen storage material with great application potential, so finding a suitable and effective catalyst for FA dehydrogenation to generate pure hydrogen under mild conditions is critical for practical applications. Herein, we converted poplar catkin (PC) with microtube structure into N-doped carbon microsheets (NPC) through carbonization, ultrasonic crushing and modification processes, and further immobilized fine Pd and Co2P nanoparticles on NPC microsheets to form a novel ternary catalyst of Pd-Co2P/NPC. The Pd-Co2P/NPC catalysts have excellent catalytic performance for dehydrogenation of FA under mild conditions, with a high selectivity of 100%, high initial turnover frequency value (TOF) of 2980 h−1 at 50 °C and maintained 1530 h−1 even at 30 °C. The catalyst could be recycled consecutively up to seven times without remarkable change in the catalytic activity. The significantly improved performances of Pd-Co2P/NPC can be attributed to high dispersity of Pd-Co2P nanoparticles and synergetic effect between different components. These results suggest that the biomass-based NPC microsheets may be a promising low-cost supports for the manufacturing various highly efficient nanocatalyts.