Amine-Functionalized Natural Halloysite Nanotubes Supported Metallic (Pd, Au, Ag) Nanoparticles and Their Catalytic Performance for Dehydrogenation of Formic Acid

Limin Song; Kaiyuan Tan; Yingyue Ye; Baolin Zhu; Shoumin Zhang; Weiping Huang

doi:10.3390/nano12142414

Amine-Functionalized Natural Halloysite Nanotubes Supported Metallic (Pd, Au, Ag) Nanoparticles and Their Catalytic Performance for Dehydrogenation of Formic Acid

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2022 Jul 14;12(14):2414. doi: 10.3390/nano12142414.

Authors

Limin Song¹, Kaiyuan Tan¹, Yingyue Ye¹, Baolin Zhu^{1

2}, Shoumin Zhang^{1

2}, Weiping Huang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
² The Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education), Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.

Abstract

In today's age of resource scarcity, the low-cost development and utilization of renewable energy, e.g., hydrogen energy, have attracted much attention in the world. In this work, cheap natural halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) were modified with γ-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES), and the functionalized HNTs were used as to support metal (Pd, Au, Ag) catalysts for dehydrogenation of formic acid (DFA). The supports and fabricated catalysts were characterized with ICP, FT-IR, XRD, XPS and TEM. The functional groups facilitate the anchoring of metal particles to the supports, which brings about the high dispersion of metallic particles in catalysts. The catalysts show high activity against DFA and exhibit selectivity of 100% toward H₂ at room temperature or less. The interactions between active centers and supports were investigated by evaluation and comparison of the catalytic performances of Pd/NH₂-HNTs, PdAg/NH₂-HNTs and PdAu/NH₂-HNTs for DFA.

Keywords: Pd; dehydrogenation; formic acid; halloysite nanotube; γ-aminopropyltriethoxysilane.

Grants and funding

Supported by the funds from State Key Laboratory of Coking Coal Exploitation and Comprehensive Utilization (41040220181107).