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Ammonia borane (AB) is considered to be a promising chemical hydrogen storage material with high hydrogen storage density (19.6%), which can release three molar equivalents of hydrogen through catalytic hydrolysis at room temperature. However, AB releases hydrogen slowly in water, it is necessary to develop highly active metal nanocatalysts to accelerate the process of hydrolysis. This article provides an overview of the synthesis and characterization methods of ammonia borane, the mechanism of hydrolysis and catalytic hydrogen production using the unique dihydrogen key in the ammonia borane structure, and the various factors that affect the hydrogen release performance of AB.

Low-cost and high-performance catalyst is crucial for hydrogen generation via the hydrolysis of ammonia borane (NH3BH3, AB) as a chemical hydrogen storage material. In this work, Co-CeOxnanocomposites supported on graphene (Co-CeOx/graphene) were prepared through a facile impregnation and chemical reduction method and used as a catalyst in the hydrolytic dehydrogenation of ammonia borane. The results indicate that the as-prepared Co-CeOx/graphene nanocomposite exhibits superior catalytic activity and recycling stability in the hydrolysis of ammonia borane, owing to the ultra-fine size of Co-CeOxparticles, the strong synergistic electronic effect between Co and CeOx, as well as the strong metal-support interaction between Co-CeOxand graphene. For the hydrolysis of ammonia borane over the optimized Co-CeOx/graphene catalyst, the turnover frequency (TOF) reaches 45.1 min−1, with the activation energy (Ea) of 39.5 kJ/mol; such a TOF value is 12 times and 9 times higher than those over Co and Co/graphene, respectively, also much higher than those reported for most noble-metal-free catalysts.