Facile construction of robust Ru-CoO Mott-Schottky catalyst enabling efficient dehydrogenation of ammonia borane for hydrogen generation.

Developing efficient catalysts for the dehydrogenation of ammonia borane (AB) is important for the safe storage and controlled release of hydrogen, but it is a challenging task. In this study, we designed a robust Ru-CoO catalyst using the Mott-Schottky effect to induce favorable charge rearrangement. The self-created electron-rich CoO and electron-deficient Ru sites at heterointerfaces are indispensable for the activation of the B-H bond in NHBH and the OH bond in HO, respectively. The synergistic electronic interaction between the electron-rich CoO and electron-deficient Ru sites at the heterointerfaces resulted in an optimal Ru-CoO heterostructure that exhibited outstanding catalytic activity for the hydrolysis of AB in the presence of NaOH. The heterostructure had an extremely high hydrogen generation rate (HGR) of 12238 mL min g and an expected high turnover frequency (TOF) of 755 mol mol min at 298 K. The activation energy needed for the hydrolysis was low (36.65 kJ mol). This study opens up a new avenue for the rational design of high-performance catalysts for AB dehydrogenation based on the Mott-Schottky effect.