Bamboo fungus-derived magnetic porous carbon encapsulated nickel stabilized Rh nanoparticles as efficient catalysts for hydrolytic dehydrogenation of ammonia borane

Biomass-derived porous carbons are generally used as supports for metal nanoparticle (NP) stabilizations, while the strong hydrophilicity of such materials makes the as-prepared catalysts hard to be isolated after reaction, significantly affecting their potential applications. Herein, magnetic N-functionalized carbon (CN) encapsulated Ni composite (Ni@CN) prepared via pyrolysis of bamboo fungus pre-absorbed with nickel nitrate is exploited as a matrix to synthesize Rh/Ni@CN hybrid, which can be used as a magnetically recoverable catalytic material for hydrolytic dehydrogenation of ammonia borane (AB) to generate hydrogen. The Rh/Ni@CN (Rh loading: 0.84 wt%) exhibits an optimal activity (turnover frequency: 351 min⁻¹) for hydrogen evolution from hydrolytic dehydrogenation of AB. Most importantly, this catalyst can be simply isolated by a magnet and reused at least five times with complete conversion of AB to hydrogen. The strong interaction between the two metals and the small size of Rh NPs are responsible for the improved catalytic activity for hydrolytic dehydrogenation of AB. This work provides an eco-friendly and efficient strategy to fabricate excellent catalysts in catalytic applications.