One-pot synthesis of graphene hydrogel-anchored cobalt-copper nanoparticles and their catalysis in hydrogen generation from ammonia borane

We reported a facile one-pot synthesis of bimetallic CoCu nanoparticles (NPs) anchored on graphene hydrogel (GH-CoCu) as catalysts in hydrogen generation from the hydrolysis of ammonia borane (HAB). The presented novel one-pot method composed of the reduction of the mixture of graphene oxide, cobalt(II), and copper(II) acetate tetrahydrates by aqueous ethylene glycol solution in a teflon-coated stainless-steel reactor at 180 °C. The structure of the yielded GH-CoCu nanocatalysts was characterized by TEM, SEM, XRD, XPS, and ICP-MS. This is the first example of both the synthesis of bimetallic CoCu NPs anchored on GH and the testing of a hydrothermally prepared noble metal-free GH-bimetallic nanocomposites as catalysts for the HAB.