Ultrasmall Pd nanoparticles supported on a metal–organic framework DUT-67-PZDC for enhanced formic acid dehydrogenation

The highly dispersed ultrasmall palladium nanoparticles (Pd NPs) (1.7 nm) were successfully immobilized on a N-containing metal–organic framework (MOF, DUT-67-PZDC) using a co-reduction method, and it is used as an excellent catalyst for formic acid dehydrogenation (FAD). The optimized catalyst Pd/DUT-67-PZDC(10, 10 wt% Pd loading) shows 100% hydrogen (H2) selectivity and formic acid (FA) conversion at 60 °C, and the commendable initial turnover frequency (TOF) values of 2572 h−1 with the sodium formate (SF) as an additive and 1059 h−1 even without SF, which is better than most reported MOF supported Pd monometallic heterogeneous catalysts. The activation energy (Ea) of FAD is 43.2 KJ/mol, which is lower than most heterogeneous catalysts. In addition, the optimized catalyst Pd/DUT-67-PZDC(10) maintained good stability over five consecutive runs, demonstrating only minimal decline in catalytic activity. The outstanding catalytic performance could be ascribed to the synergistic corporations of the unique structure of DUT-67-PZDC carrier with hierarchical pore characteristic, the metal-support interaction (MSI) between the active Pd NPs and DUT-67-PZDC, the highly dispersed Pd NPs with ultrafine size serve as the catalytic active site, as well as the N sites on the support could act as the proton buffers. This work provides a new paradigm for the efficient H2 production of FAD by constructing highly active heterogeneous Pd-based catalysts using MOF supports.