Amine-Functionalized Carbon Bowl-Supported Pd-La(OH) 3 for Formic Acid Dehydrogenation

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Formic acid (HCOOH, FA) is emerging as an appealing carrier for hydrogen storage owing to its renewability, a high volumetric capacity of 53 g H 2 /L, and convenient storage/transportation as a liquid. It is highly desired but still a challenge to search highly efficient catalysts to realize hydrogen evolution from FA. Here, monodispersed and ultrasmall Pd–La(OH) 3 nanoparticles (NPs) anchored on amine-functionalized N-doped porous carbon bowl (N-PCB-NH 2 ) substrates have been fabricated through a facile wet chemistry approach. As a result of the ultrafine size of Pd–La(OH) 3 NPs (1.6 nm), the deprotonation ability of La(OH) 3 and amine groups, and the strong metal–support interaction between Pd–La(OH) 3 and N-PCB-NH 2, the as-prepared Pd–La(OH) 3 /N-PCB-NH 2 catalyst exhibits 100% H 2 selectivity and exceptional catalytic property with a high turnover frequency value up to 9585 h –1 for FA dehydrogenation at 323 K, which is superior to most of the heterogeneous catalysts ever reported. Kinetic isotope effect measurements demonstrate that the C–H bond cleavage is a rate-determining step in the FA dehydrogenation reaction as compared to the O–H bond dissociation. This work presents a feasible approach to synthesize supported ultrafine metal NP catalysts with porous bowl structures for H 2 generation from FA.