Hydrogen, a promising green substitution for fossil fuels, is one of the keys to environmental issues caused by traditional energy consumption. Chemical storage of hydrogen in ammonia borane(AB) has desirable viability and satisfactory efficiency but requires catalysts for hydrogenation. Monomorphic and ultra-small ruthenium nanoparticles (Ru NPs) with high dispersion have high reactivity towards the methanolysis of AB. Here, an anionic porous coordination cage (PCC-2) is able to capture Ru3+ in solution and confine Ru NPs through in situ reduction. The Transmission electron microscopic (TEM) study proves that the encapsulated Ru NPs has an ultra-small diameter of 2.5 nm with high homogeneity. More importantly, unusual face-centered cubic (fcc) form of Ru NPs were generated under the regulation of the cage cavity. The as-synthesized Ru NPs@PCC-2 composite exhibits much enhanced catalytic activity in the AB methanolysis, with a new record-high turnover frequency (TOF) of 304.4 min-1. The success of using porous coordination cage to encapsulate NPs offers a straightforward synthetic way for long-standing metal NPs with ultra-small sizes, high dispersion, designed morphology and enhanced reactivity.

Ultra-small face-centered cubic Ru nanoparticles confined with an anionic porous coordination cage for high performance catalysis

255th National Meeting (2018)

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