Nanostructured Ni2 P as a Robust Catalyst for the Hydrolytic Dehydrogenation of Ammonia-Borane.

Ammonia-borane (AB) is a promising chemical hydrogen-storage material. However, the development of real-time, efficient, controllable, and safe methods for hydrogen release under mild conditions is a challenge in the large-scale use of hydrogen as a long-term solution for future energy security. A new class of low-cost catalytic system is presented that uses nanostructured Ni2 P as catalyst, which exhibits excellent catalytic activity and high sustainability toward hydrolysis of ammonia-borane with the initial turnover frequency of 40.4 mol(H2)  mol(Ni2P) (-1)  min(-1) under air atmosphere and at ambient temperature. This value is higher than those reported for noble-metal-free catalysts, and the obtained Arrhenius activation energy (Ea =44.6 kJ mol(-1) ) for the hydrolysis reaction is comparable to Ru-based bimetallic catalysts. A clearly mechanistic analysis of the hydrolytic reaction of AB based on experimental results and a density functional theory calculation is presented.