Monodispersed palladium-cobalt alloy nanoparticles assembled on poly(N-vinyl-pyrrolidone) (PVP) as a highly effective catalyst for dimethylamine borane (DMAB) dehydrocoupling

Herein we report the fabrication of monodispersed poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) supported palladium-cobalt nanomaterials (3.45 +/- 0.36 nm) and their outstanding efficiency as catalysts in dimethylamine-borane dehydrogenation. By the use of an ultrasonic double reduction method, palladium and cobalt cations were co-reduced in PVP solution and then the prepared nanocatalysts were characterized by UV-Vis, XRD, XPS and HR-TEM-EDX analyses. The nanocatalysts could be easily reused, and at extremely low concentrations and temperature they showed record catalytic activity, giving the best catalytic performance yet with a very high turnover frequency (330.94 h(-1)) and a low Ea value of 50.78 +/- 2 kJ mol(-1) for DMAB dehydrocoupling.