Hierarchical nanoporous platinum-copper alloy nanoflowers as highly active catalysts for the hydrolytic dehydrogenation of ammonia borane.

Hierarchical nanoporous platinum-copper (hnp-PtCu) alloy nanoflowers with bimodal pore/ligament size are easily fabricated by selectively dissolving Al atoms and part of Cu atoms from PtCuAl ternary alloy. The dealloyed samples consist of cross-linking porous nanoflowers with interconnected network skeleton and hollow channels penetrated. Hnp-PtCu alloy nanoflowers with different compositions exhibit dramatically enhanced catalytic activities toward the hydrolysis of ammonia borane (AB) compared with their monometallic components. The hnp-Pt35Cu65 alloy shows superior catalytic performance than the other hnp-PtCu catalysts with an initial much higher turnover frequency of 108 mol H2 min-1 (mol Pt)-1. Moreover, the hnp-Pt35Cu65 displays excellent structure stability even after the five runs for the AB hydrolysis. The as-made hnp-PtCu catalysts hold promising application potential toward the AB hydrolysis with the advantages of facile preparation, high yielding, superior catalytic activity, and high structure durability.