Y 2 O 3 ‐functionalized graphene‐immobilized Ni–Pt nanoparticles for enhanced hydrous hydrazine and hydrazine borane dehydrogenation

Abstract Developing efficient and highly selective catalyst to promote hydrogen generation from hydrous hydrazine (N 2 H 4 ·H 2 O) and hydrazine borane (N 2 H 4 BH 3 ) remains a challenging issue for fuel cell‐based hydrogen economy. In this work, ultrafine and well‐dispersed bimetallic NiPt nanoparticles (3.4 nm) were successfully immobilized on Y 2 O 3 ‐functionalized graphene (Y 2 O 3 /rGO) without any surfactant by a simple liquid impregnation approach. It is firstly found that integration of graphene and Y 2 O 3 not only can facilitate the formation of ultrafine NiPt nanoparticles (NPs), but also can effectively modulate the electronic structure of NiPt NPs, thereby boosting the catalytic performance. Compared with NiPt/Y 2 O 3 and NiPt/rGO, the NiPt/Y 2 O 3 /rGO nanocomposites (NCs) show remarkable enhanced catalytic efficiency for hydrogen production from N 2 H 4 ·H 2 O. In particular, the optimized Ni 0.6 Pt 0.4 /Y 2 O 3 /rGO NCs display the best catalytic efficiency and 100% H 2 selectivity for N 2 H 4 ·H 2 O dehydrogenation, providing a turnover frequency (TOF) of 2182 h −1 at 323 K, which is among the highest values ever reported. Moreover, the Ni 0.6 Pt 0.4 /Y 2 O 3 /rGO NCs also exhibit an excellent catalytic performance (TOF = 3191 h −1 ) and 100% H 2 selectively for N 2 H 4 BH 3 dehydrogenation at 323 K. The outstanding catalytic results obtained provide more possibilities for the potential applications of N 2 H 4 ·H 2 O and N 2 H 4 BH 3 as promising chemical hydrogen storage materials.