Regular Article

Catalytic hydrogen production in ammonia borane by lanthanum-added nonprecious metal high-entropy alloys

College of Material Science and Engineering, Key laboratory of Advanced Structural Materials, Ministry of Education, Changchun University of Technology, Changchun 130012, P.R. China

*e-mail: zhaozk@ccut.edu.cn

Received: 31 December 2022
Received in final form: 27 March 2023
Accepted: 10 May 2023
Published online: 27 June 2023

Abstract

As excellent materials, high-entropy alloys have excellent mechanical properties, wear resistance, oxidation resistance, corrosion resistance, physical properties, and radiation resistance. This work presents the design and preparation of a novel high-entropy alloy based on the BCC structure, added with lanthanum, and shows excellent catalytic performance in the hydrolysis of ammonia borane. The high-entropy alloy catalyst being able to catalyse the complete release of hydrogen in 1.3 min at 323 K, and the value of turnover frequency (TOF) value as high as 93.96 min⁻¹. The value of the apparent activation energy (Ea) can reach 26.98 kJ/mol. It retains good catalytic performance after 10 cycles of catalytic hydrogen production from equivalent amounts of boron ammonia at 303 K. In this work, a new strategy is presented to improve the performance of transition group high-entropy alloys and the potential energy and environmental benefits of these alloys are demonstrated.