rGO supported PdNi-CeO2 nanocomposite as an efficient catalyst for hydrogen evolution from the hydrolysis of NH3BH3

Abstract The hydrogen economy is a proposed system that utilizes hydrogen to deliver energy. For the realization of this concept, how to safely, controllably and reversibly store and release hydrogen are critical problems which must be resolved. Metal alloys combined with suitable support materials are widely applied to various catalytic reactions. Here palladium nickel bimetallic nanoparticles doped with cerium oxide on a reduced graphene oxide (rGO) support were prepared by combining metal ion precursors and graphene oxide in a one-pot co-reduction approach. The as-received catalysts were characterized by XRD, TEM, SEM, XPS and ICP-OES, and the results revealed that PdNi-CeO 2 nanoparticles were uniform dispersal on rGO. The as-synthesized PdNi-CeO 2 /rGO had been adopted as a heterogeneous catalyst for the hydrogen evolution from the hydrolysis of ammonia borane (NH 3 BH 3 , AB) at room temperature. Kinetically, the hydrogen-release rate was first-order with the increased concentration of catalysts. The optimized catalyst of Pd 0.8 Ni 0.2 -CeO 2 /rGO with the CeO 2 content of 13.9 mol% exhibited an excellent activity with a turnover frequency value of 30.5 mol H 2 (mol catalyst) −1  min −1  at 298 K, and a low apparent activation energy ( E a ) of 37.78 kJ mol −1 . The robust catalytic performance of the Pd 0.8 Ni 0.2 -CeO 2 /rGO is attributed to the uniform controlled nanoparticle size, the synergic effect between the nanoparticles bimetallic properties, and the effective charge transfer interactions between the metal and support.