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Immobilizing palladium nanoparticles on boron-oxygen-functionalized carbon nanospheres towards efficient hydrogen generation from formic acid

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Abstract

Carbon nanospheres (XC-72R) were functionalized by boron-oxygen (B-O) through coannealing with boric acid, to which highly dispersed palladium nanoparticles (Pd NPs) (~ 1.7 nm) were immobilized by a wet chemical reduction for the first time. The resultant Pd/OB-C catalyst exhibits significantly improved activity for the dehydrogenation from formic acid (FA) compared to pristine XC-72R supported Pd NPs (Pd/C). Impressively, by adding melamine precursor, the B-O and nitrogen (N)-functionalized product OB-C-N displays an extremely high B content, ca. 34 times higher than OB-C. The Pd/OB-C-N catalyst with an ultrafine Pd particle size of ~ 1.4 nm shows a superb activity, with a turnover frequency (TOF) as high as 5,354 h−1 at 323 K, owing to the uniform ultrafine Pd NPs and the effect from B-O and N functionalities.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are very thankful to Dr. Takeyuki Uchida for TEM measurements, and METI and AIST for financial support. S. Z. is grateful to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology-Japan (MEXT) for a PhD scholarship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute of Electrochemical Energy, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Ikeda, Osaka, 563-8577, Japan

    Shan Zhong, Mitsunori Kitta & Qiang Xu

  2. Graduate School of Engineering, Kobe University, Kobe, Hyogo, 657-8501, Japan

    Shan Zhong & Qiang Xu

  3. Department of Applied Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Toyama National College of Technology, 13 Hongo-machi, Toyama, 939-8630, Japan

    Nobuko Tsumori

  4. National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), AIST-Kyoto University Chemical Energy Materials Open Innovation Laboratory (ChEM-OIL), Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan

    Qiang Xu

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  1. Shan Zhong
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Correspondence to Qiang Xu.

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Immobilizing palladium nanoparticles on boron-oxygen-functionalized carbon nanospheres towards efficient hydrogen generation from formic acid

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Zhong, S., Tsumori, N., Kitta, M. et al. Immobilizing palladium nanoparticles on boron-oxygen-functionalized carbon nanospheres towards efficient hydrogen generation from formic acid. Nano Res. 12, 2966–2970 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-019-2539-9

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