Immobilizing highly catalytically active noble metal nanoparticles on reduced graphene oxide: a non-noble metal sacrificial approach.

In this work, we have developed a non-noble metal sacrificial approach for the first time to successfully immobilize highly dispersed AgPd nanoparticles on reduced graphene oxide (RGO). The Co3(BO3)2 co-precipitated with AgPd nanoparticles and subsequently sacrificed by acid etching effectively prevents the primary AgPd particles from aggregation. The resulted ultrafine AgPd nanoparticles exhibit the highest activity (turnover frequency, 2739 h(-1) at 323 K) among all the heterogeneous catalysts for the dehydrogenation of formic acid to generate hydrogen without CO impurity. The sacrificial approach opens up a new avenue for the development of high-performance metal nanocatalysts.