Ruthenium nanoclusters distributed on phosphorus-doped carbon derived from hypercrosslinked polymer networks for highly efficient hydrolysis of ammonia-borane

Developing effective catalysts for hydrogen production from ammonia-borane (AB) hydrolysis is highly important for the potential usage of hydrogen-based energy. Here, phosphorus-doped carbon (PPC) derived from hypercrosslinked polymer networks of triphenylphosphine and benzene was employed as support to synthesize Ru/PPC through the in situ stabilization of ultrafine and uniform Ru nanoclusters (NCs). It was found that the Ru NCs with a mean diameter of 1.13 nm dispersed well on the PPC surface. The Ru/PPC exhibited a high turnover frequency of 413 mol H2 (molRu·min)−1 under mild conditions. The high catalytic performance of Ru/PPC could be ascribed to the small size of metal, which can offer more catalytically active components for the reaction. This work reveals that the PPC has promising potential catalyst support in stabilizing metal NCs for AB hydrolysis to generate hydrogen.