Highly active and stable Ni@SiO2 catalyst for ammonia decomposition

Ammonia is considered as a potential hydrogen carrier as its high hydrogen content. Hydrogen release still presents challenges due to the lack of efficient catalyst. In this work, we report a Ni@SiO2 catalyst prepared through a sol-gel method, which displays satisfied catalytic activity and remarkable long-term stability. The origination of activity and stability has been investigated carefully by various characterizations. The strong interaction between nickel species and silica species is responsible for the excellent performance via generating small nickel particle and hindering the sintering of nickel during the high temperature reaction condition. This study offers novel insights into the design and preparation of highly efficient catalysts for ammonia decomposition to produce hydrogen.