Active 3D Pd/graphene aerogel catalyst for hydrogen generation from the hydrolysis of ammonia-borane

•The 3D graphene aerogel was prepared via an innovative method.•Pd nanoparticles decorated on graphene aerogel were synthesized and characterized.•Pd/graphene aerogel catalyze ammonia borane complex to release hydrogen efficiently.•Metal-support interaction mode between Pd NPs and graphene aerogel was investigated.

In this work, a novel three dimensional (3D) Pd/graphene aerogel hybrid was successfully synthesized and characterized. The preparation process of the Pd/graphene aerogel was also discussed systematically. Experimental results indicated that this kind of 3D Pd/graphene aerogel hybrid exhibited excellent catalytic activity on the ammonia borane hydrolysis to release hydrogen with the turnover frequency value of 9.70 molH2molmetal−1min−1molH2molmetal−1min−1, and activation energy Ea value of 30.82 kJ/mol, which is higher than that of 2D Pd/RGO and original Pd nanoparticles. Furthermore, the abundant defects of graphene aerogel support can transfer the electrons of Pd nanoparticles to graphene aerogel due to the metal-support interaction, which is beneficial to the ammonia borane hydrolysis reaction. In addition, the pore-rich 3D Pd/graphene aerogel has offered huge effective reacting acreages for ammonia borane hydrolysis, which is helpful for its reusability.