Hydrogen production by using Ru nanoparticle decorated with Fe₃O₄@SiO₂–NH₂ core-shell microspheres

Noble metals are commonly used in order to accelerate the NH₃BH₃ hydrolysis for H₂ production as heterogeneous catalysts. The nanoparticles (NPs) of these metals can be applied as active catalysts in fluid reactions. Metal NPs included in the core-shell nanostructures emerged as well-defined heterogeneous catalysts. Additionally, unsupported NPs catalysts can be gathered easily among neighboring NPs and the separation/recovery of these catalysts are not efficient with traditional methods. For this reason, here, silica-shell configuration was designed which was functionalized with a magnetic core and amine groups and Ru NPs were accumulated on Fe₃O₄@SiO₂–NH₂ surface for H₂ production from NH₃BH₃. Fe₃O₄@SiO₂–NH₂–Ru catalysts demonstrated high catalytic activity as long as it has a hydrogen production rate of 156381.25 mLg_cat⁻¹ min⁻¹ and a turnover frequency (TOF) of 617 mol_H2mol_cat⁻¹min⁻¹ towards the hydrolysis dehydrogenation of AB at 30 °C. This result is significantly higher than most of the known catalysts.