Two-dimensional titanium carbide-supported ultrafine non-noble bimetallic nanocatalysts for remarkable hydrolytic evolution from ammonia borane

Abstract

Ammonia borane (AB) hydrolysis is a sustainable and efficient method for hydrogen energy conversion and transportation. Designing a non-precious AB hydrolysis catalyst with high catalytic activity is considered to be promising but challenging. Herein, highly dispersed Cu_0.9Ni_0.1 alloy nanoparticles (NPs) were successfully fabricated via a conventional wet-chemical co-reduction method on transition metal carbides (Ti₃C₂T_x), facilitating hydrogen evolution during AB hydrolysis. The optimized Cu_0.9Ni_0.1/Ti₃C₂T_x catalyst exhibits an impressive turnover frequency (TOF) of 2429 h⁻¹ at 323 K for AB hydrolysis, with 100% hydrogen selectivity, outperforming those of most non-precious metal catalysts. This enhanced performance is attributed to the synergistic effect between Cu and Ni, as well as the strong electronic metal–support interaction between Ti₃C₂T_x and Cu_0.9Ni_0.1 NPs. This study provides a general and simple method for synthesizing highly efficient non-precious metal AB hydrolysis catalysts.