Preparation and characterization of niobium carbide mxene-stabilized rh (0) nanoparticles and their use as catalysts in hydrogen production from hydrazine-boran

This thesis aimed to prepare and characterize a new catalytic material that produces hydrogen via the hydrolysis reaction of hydrazine-borane (HB), which is considered as an important B-N derivative with a high bulk hydrogen density and stores hydrogen in solid form. In this context, niobium carbide (Nb2CTx) MXene stabilized Rh (0) nanoparticles (Rh@Nb2CTx) were synthesized out of reaction and the precatalytic activity of the obtained Rh@Nb2CTx catalyst in hydrogen production from the HB complex was determined. During the synthesis of the catalyst, Rh(0) nanoparticles were loaded onto the two-dimensional Nb2CTx-MXene structure by the impregnation-reduction technique. Nb2CTx structures with accordion morphology were found to be an ideal matrix for stabilizing Rh (0) nanoparticles due to their high surface area, layered structure, and good dispersion properties. ICP-OES, FT-IR, SEM, SEM-EDX, SEM Elemental Mapping, XPS, TEM, TEM-EDX, HR-TEM and XRD techniques were used for the characterization of the synthesized Nb2CTx-MXene and Rh@Nb2CTx samples. In order to evaluate the performance of Nb2CTx stabilized Rh (0) nanoparticles, which were determined to be active by preliminary catalytic studies, in the catalytic hydrolysis reaction of HB, the effects of catalyst and substrate concentrations and different temperature parameters were investigated to optimize the reaction conditions. As a result of the study, it was determined that Nb2CTx stabilized Rh (0) nanoparticles showed high catalytic activity with an activation energy of 60 kJ/mol in hydrogen production from HB hydrolysis (TOFinitial = 36.78 mol H2/mol catalyst×min at 298 K). It is anticipated that the obtained results will make significant contributions to the development of sustainable energy sources and hydrogen production from B-N adducts in the presence of catalysts.