Abstract
Metal-organic frameworks have attracted extensively attentions due to their unique structural properties such as high porosity, good crystallinity, and three-dimensional networking. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no report concerning the application of partially decomposed metal-organic frameworks based catalyst for sodium borohydride hydrolysis for H2 generation. Herein, the partially decomposed cobalt-based zeolitic imidazolate frameworks supported Pd nanoclusters are fabricated by evaporation solvent assisted method followed by subsequent annealing under H2 atmosphere. Our results show that catalytic performance of the designed catalyst can be largely improved by optimizing the Pd loading and the annealing temperatures. The optimized catalyst exhibits a high catalytic activity towards hydrolysis of alkalized sodium borohydride with a specific H2 generation rate of 20.6 l min−1 mgPd−1 and turnover frequency of 495.0 mol min−1 molPd−1 at 25 °C, which is the highest reported so far among the similar catalysts. Moreover, the resulted catalyst also demonstrates a high level of stability. Based on structural characterization and experimental optimization, the extraordinary performance of the fabricated catalyst is mainly contributed to the synergetic effect of highly dispersed Pd nanoclusters with partially decomposed cobalt-based zeolitic imidazolate frameworks.
The partially decomposed ZIF-67 supported Pd nanoclusters exhibit the highest catalytic activity and stability towards hydrolysis hydrogen generation, which are identified as the synergetic effect between well-dispersed Pd nanoclusters and PD-ZIF-67 support. [Display omitted]
•The partially decomposed ZIF-67 supported Pd nanoclusters (Pd/PD-ZIF-67) are fabricated by a facile two-step method.•The PD-ZIF-67 modified with 1.62 wt.% Pd exhibits the highest catalytic activity and stability towards hydrolytic NaBH4.•The synergetic effect between Pd nanoclusters and PD-ZIF-67 support dominate the extraordinary hydrolytic performance.