Exploiting tripeptide in Pd/C for boosting hydrogen production from formic acid dehydrogenation†

Designing highly efficient catalysts for driving the hydrogen production from formic acid (FA) dehydrogenation is of considerable practical importance for future hydrogen economies. Herein, ultrafine Pd nanoparticles (NPs) with lattice strain induced by the incorporation of tripeptide (TPT) anchored on commercial Vulcan XC-72R carbon (Pd/C-TPT) are fabricated by a facile wet-chemical process. Remarkably, the obtained Pd/C-TPT catalyst presents an extraordinary catalytic activity towards dehydrogenation of FA without any additives, giving an initial turnover frequency (TOF) value as high as 2102 mol H₂ per mol Pd per h at 323 K, which is 8.4 times than that of the Pd/C catalyst, and even much higher than most of other superior Pd catalysts reported so far. The characterization results reveal that the strain effect and size effect caused by the strong interaction between the Pd NPs and TPT tune the electronic structure of Pd for optimized formate adsorption. This study provides more flexibility for a facile and controllable synthesis strategy of efficient catalysts toward FA dehydrogenation for hydrogen production.