Carbon-supported bimetallic RuCu catalyst for efficient hydrogen evolution from ammonia borane hydrolysis

The development of highly efficient and cost-effective catalysts remains a key challenge in advancing sustainable hydrogen generation. The rational alloying of noble metals with earth-abundant transition metals has emerged as an effective strategy to modulate electronic structures, optimize adsorption energies, and thereby enhance both catalytic activity and long-term stability. In this study, highly dispersed RuCu alloy nanoparticles were successfully synthesized via an impregnation reduction method on biomass-derived carbon (BDC) support for hydrogen evolution through ammonia borane (NH₃BH₃, AB) hydrolysis. RuCu alloys with varying compositions exhibited significantly improved catalytic performance compared to their monometallic counterparts. Among them, the optimized Ru_0.7Cu_0.3/BDC catalyst achieved an impressive turnover frequency (TOF) of 424 mol_H₂·mol_Ru^-1·min^-1 at room temperature. Experimental analysis revealed a pronounced synergistic interaction between Cu and Ru, where multiatomic active sites in the alloy nanostructure facilitated optimized reaction pathways and significantly accelerated hydrogen generation. This study provides significant understanding of catalytic behaviour and presents a rational strategy for the design of cost-effective, high-performance bimetallic nanocatalysts for hydrogen energy applications.