Fabrication of Pt-Co NPs supported on nanoporous graphene as high-efficient catalyst for hydrolytic dehydrogenation of ammonia borane

Nanoporous graphene (PG) supported Pt-Co bimetallic nanoparticles were prepared and their catalytic activity in hydrogen generation from hydrolysis of NH3·BH3 solution were examined. The synthesized Pt-Co@PG with a loading amount of 30 wt% Pt-Co (atomic ratio 1:9) exhibited a superior TOF value of 461.17 molH2 min−1 molPt−1 and an activation energy (Ea) value of 32.79 kJ mol−1 for NH3·BH3 hydrolysis. This remarkably enhanced activity was ascribed to the charge interaction between Pt-Co NPs and PG support. The defects and holes on PG acting as the anchoring sites for Pt-Co NPs was beneficial for achieving a uniform distribution and a decreased particle size for the NPs. The Pt-Co@PG catalysts also showed a well-established reusability, with 81.2% of their initial catalytic activity after five runs of reactions, demonstrating that they had high durability.