Nanoporous PtRu Alloys with Unique Catalytic Activity toward Hydrolytic Dehydrogenation of Ammonia Borane

Nanoporous (NP) PtRu alloys with three different bimetallic components were straightforwardly fabricated by dealloying PtRuAl ternary alloys in hydrochloric acid. Selective etching of aluminum from source alloys generates bicontinuous network nanostructures with uniform size and structure. The as-made NP-PtRu alloys exhibit superior catalytic activity toward the hydrolytic dehydrogenation of ammonia borane (AB) than pure NP-Pt and NP-Ru owing to alloying platinum with ruthenium. The NP-Pt70Ru30 alloy exhibits much higher specific activity toward hydrolytic dehydrogenation of AB than NP-Pt30Ru70 and NP-Pt50Ru50. The hydrolysis activation energy of NP-Pt70Ru30 was estimated to be about 38.9kJmol(-1), which was lower than most of the reported activation energy values in the literature. In addition, recycling tests show that the NP-Pt70Ru30 is still highly active in the hydrolysis of AB even after five runs, which indicates that NP-PtRu alloy accompanied by the network nanoarchitecture is beneficial to improve structural stability toward the dehydrogenation of AB.