AuPd bimetal immobilized on amine‐functionalized SBA‐15 for hydrogen generation from formic acid: the effect of the ratio of toluene to DMF

The volume ratio of toluene to N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) was adjusted during the amine functionalization of SBA-15 to change the amine content of SBA-15. XPS, FTIR, and TGA analyses indicated that under the experimental synthetic conditions the number of amine groups varies with the ratio of toluene/DMF, and the highest content of amine could be obtained with a volume ratio of toluene/DMF = 3:2. The hydrogen production experiment of formic acid decomposition showed that the hydrogen production efficiency over the Au-Pd-SBA-15-NH2 catalysts increased with the increase in the surface amine content of the Au-Pd-SBA-15-NH2. The optimal Au-Pd-SBA-15-NH2-TD (toluene/DMF = 3:2) catalyst proved to have the smallest Au-Pd bimetal nanoparticle size and exhibited a turnover frequency (TOF) = 631 hours(-1) and an activation energy (Ea) = 20.8 kJ center dot mol(-1) at 25 degrees C. The catalytic performance of hydrogen generation from the formic acid was improved due to the synergistic effect between the amine-functionalized SBA-15 and the Au-Pd bimetal (metal-support interactions).