Low-cost ternary Ni–Fe–P catalysts supported on Ni foam for hydrolysis of ammonia borane

Abstract

Exploring nonprecious metal based catalysts to replace noble metal based catalysts for hydrolysis of ammonia borane (NH₃BH₃, AB) is still an ongoing challenge. In this work, low-cost ternary nickel–iron–phosphide catalysts supported on Ni foam (Ni–Fe–P/Ni foam) have been synthesized by one-step electroless plating and the as-prepared Ni–Fe–P catalysts were homogeneously distributed on the nickel network. Compared with the binary Ni–P/Ni foam and Fe–P/Ni foam synthesized in the same way, the ternary Ni–Fe–P/Ni foam exhibited the best catalytic activity at room temperature. By using Ni–Fe–P/Ni foam catalysts with a concentration of 0.5 wt% AB, a hydrogen generation (HG) rate of 0.7 L min⁻¹ g⁻¹ could be achieved at 30 °C with a relatively low activation energy value of 42.0 kJ mol⁻¹. These results indicated that the ternary Ni–Fe–P/Ni foam is a very promising catalyst due to its low-cost and acceptable catalytic activity.