Preparation of carbon-supported NiCo alloy nanoparticles and evaluation of their catalytic activity in the methanolysis of ammonia borane

Abstract

The present work reported the development of carbon-supported bimetallic NiCo nanoparticles for H2 production in the methanolysis of AB for electricity generation from fuel cells. It was investigated by powder X-ray diffraction (P-XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques. The catalytic properties of the Ni0.19Co0.81/C catalyst were carefully evaluated in terms of catalytic performance, such as different temperatures, metal [NiCo] loadings, substrate [AB] concentrations, and recyclability in 10 runs. The resulting N0.19Co0.81/C catalyst exhibits good catalytic activity with a high initial TOF of 136.65 min-1 and activation energy of 33.38 kJ mol- 1 for AB methanolysis. Moreover, in the recyclability test, the Ni0.19Co0.81/C catalyst maintained 95 % of its initial activity with 100 % conversion after ten runs.