Polymer-graphene hybrid stabilized ruthenium nanocatalysts for the dimethylamine-borane dehydrogenation at ambient conditions

Abstract

In this work, we reported a new catalyst consistent of graphene oxide (GO) – poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) (PVP) hybrid supported ruthenium nanoparticles and called as Ru@GO-PVP. The GO-coupled PVP nanosheets were prepared with a new and straightforward pathway. The prepared Ru@GO-PVP nanocatalysts were characterized using some advanced analytic measurements such as XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy), XRD (X-ray diffraction), TEM/HRTEM (Transmission electron microscopy/high resolution transmission electron microscopy), Raman and ICP (Inductively coupled plasma). The mean particle size of the catalyst was found to be 2.09 nm, and this catalyst having small particle size showed one of the highest catalytic activities with a very high TOF value of 896.54 h −1 in dehydrogenation of DMAB at room temperature. Therefore, the proposed hybrid and supported catalyst offer a new pathway to enhance the catalytic dehydrogenation of DMAB greatly, and this study presents a universal and powerful technique for such applications. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.