Fabrication of hollow silica–nickel particles for the hydrolytic dehydrogenation of ammonia borane using rape pollen templates

Abstract

Hollow silica–nickel particles were fabricated by coating silica–nickel shell on rape pollen templates following calcination. The samples obtained by various preparation steps and the resulting products were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray spectroscope (EDX) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The as-prepared porous hollow silica–nickel particles were obtained by coating, calcination, and supporting process of nickel species. The morphology and pore structure of the hollow silica support depend on the coating time. The morphology and pore structure affected the catalytic activity of the hollow silica–nickel particles for hydrogen generation from an aqueous NaBH₄/NH₃BH₃ solution, and the hollow particles using silica support prepared for the coating time = 6 h showed the highest activity. The hollow particles possessed good recycling stability without significant loss of activity up to the fifth run.