Research Projects

The recent uprising demand for renewable energy resources drives research to replace non-renewable energy, which generates environmentally harmful greenhouse gases.¹ Hydrogen with high energy density (142 MJ/Kg) is produced from hydrogen-rich nitrogen-based hydrides since it’s alternative energy and can overcome the concerns of non-renewable fossil fuels.² The ammonia borane is mostly used nitrogen-based hydrides because of its high hydrogen density (19.6 wt.%), relatively high stability under ambient conditions, and the ability to release hydrogen through thermal or hydrolytic decomposition.³ Nanoscaffolds, nanoalloys, and nanostructured transition metal catalysts, such as Pt/CNT, rGO/Ru, and Ru@SiO₂ core-shell nanocatalysts, used for green hydrogen production of ammonia borane by catalytic hydrolysis.⁴ However, limited intrinsic activity, agglomeration and sintering, leaching of metals, and environmental concerns restrict their use. Moreover, the use of costly and less abundant noble metal catalysts (Pd, Pt) has been avoided by cost-effective and fairly available first-row transition metals (Co, Fe, and Ni) and their oxide nanoparticles.⁵ Bare metal and metal oxides create problems, such as agglomeration, lack of tunability, poor stability, toxicity, and safety concerns.⁶ Thus, we emphasized that hydrogen generation using metal-based polymeric nanoparticles will be a suitable alternative because of their ability to combine the high surface area and catalytic activity of nanoparticles with the improved stability, processability, and reusability of the catalysts. The main objective of this proposal is to functionalize metal-oxide nanoparticles with polymers during synthesis or post-synthetic modification strategy, which will provide substantial stability of polymer-supported catalysts increasing the efficacy towards hydrolysis of ammonia borane. The project will focus on the synthesis of acrylic polymers with –COOH and –CONR₂ functionalities using simple polymerization techniques (in line with my Ph.D. work) followed by integration of nanoparticles with polymers and finally green hydrogen generation by hydrolysis of ammonia borane (in line with research domain of host). Therefore, in the project work, polymerization will be carried out using acrylic monomers followed by functionalization of metal nanoparticles with polymers using simple polymerization techniques. The synthesized metal-polymer nanocomposites will be characterized using microscopic, spectroscopic, and thermal techniques. Finally, the hydrogen generation through catalytic hydrolysis of ammonia borane will be monitored using gas chromatography techniques. 1. Acc. Chem. Res., 2020, 53, 2483; 2. J. Energy Storage, 2023, 64, 107196; 3. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2017, 139, 11610; 4. Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, 2020, 45, 3414; 5. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2023, 145, 5486; and 6. ACS Appl. Nano Mater., 2020, 3 (12), 12213.