Authors

Abstract

In this work, we investigate influence of amount of L(+)-arginine on morphology of hollow silica-alumina composite spheres and their activity for hydrolytic dehydrogenation of ammonia borane. Hollow silica-alumina composite spheres were prepared by polystyrene templates method. In this method, silica-alumina composite shell were coated on polystyrene particles via a sol-gel reaction using L(+)-arginine as promoter, and the polystyrene template particles were removed by calcination. From the result of transmission electron microscopy, shell thickness of the hollow spheres prepared amount of L(+)-arginine of 0.0581, 0.1163, 0.2325, and 0.4650 g were 10, 20, 26, and 30 nm, respectively. From the result of nitrogen sorption, average pore size of the hollow spheres prepared amount of L(+)-arginine of 0.0581, 0.1163, 0.2325, and 0.4650 g was 6.2, 4.2, 3.4, and 2.9 nm, respectively. These results indicate that pore size and shell thickness changed into adjusting amount of L(+)-arginine. Activity of the hollow spheres prepared using various amount of L(+)-arginine for hydrolytic dehydrogenation of ammonia borane were compared. The result indicates that amount of hydrogen evolution of all the hollow spheres was almost the same level. On the other hands, hydrogen evolution rate increase with decrease of amount of L(+)-arginine. 

Keywords