VATIS UPDATE Article

A research team led by Kiyotomi Kaneda and Takato Mitsudome at Osaka University, Japan, have now developed a catalyst that realizes efficient environmentally friendly hydrogen production from organosilanes. The catalyst is composed of gold nanoparticles with a diameter of around 2 nm supported on hydroxyapatite. The catalyst was synthesized from chloroauric acid using glutathione as a capping agent to prevent nanoparticle aggregation, resulting the formation of small size of gold nanoparticles.

Glutathione-capped gold nanoparticles were then adsorbed on hydroxyapatite and glutathione was removed by subsequent calcination. The team then added the nanoparticle catalyst to solutions of different organosilanes to measure its ability to induce hydrogen production. The nanoparticle catalyst displayed the highest turnover frequency and number attained to date for hydrogen production catalysts from organosilanes.

For example, the nanoparticle catalyst converted 99% of dimethylphenylsilane to the corresponding silanol in just 9 min at room temperature, releasing an equimolar amount of hydrogen gas at the same time. Importantly, the catalyst was recyclable without loss of activity. On/off switching of hydrogen production was achieved using the nanoparticle catalyst because it could be easily separated from its organosilane substrate by filtration. The activity of the catalyst increased as the nanoparticle size decreased.