Nitrogen dopant is known to promote the activity of active metal in various catalytic reactions. Herein, the role of nitrogen dopant in formic acid dehydrogenation was investigated by synthesizing nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon (NMC) with different nitrogen contents and impregnating Pd particles on these supports (Pd/NMC). The nitrogen dopant made Pd particles small and modified the electronic state of Pd, resulting in the enhanced formic acid dehydrogenation activity. However, an excess interaction between Pd and nitrogen dopant raised the activation barrier of the formic acid dehydrogenation. This experimental result is consistent with the previously reported computational prediction. Hence, this study suggests that the optimum nitrogen doping is required to efficiently improve the catalytic activity for hydrogen production from formic acid. In addition, the hydrogen production rate was further improved by using sodium formate as an additive, resulting in the TOF value of 4821 h⁻¹ at 65 °C.

已知氮掺杂剂可在各种催化反应中促进活性金属的活性。在此，通过合成具有不同氮含量的氮掺杂介孔碳（NMC）并将Pd颗粒浸渍在这些载体（Pd / NMC）上，研究了氮掺杂剂在甲酸脱氢中的作用。氮掺杂剂使Pd颗粒变小并改变了Pd的电子状态，从而提高了甲酸的脱氢活性。然而，Pd和氮掺杂剂之间的过度相互作用提高了甲酸脱氢的活化势垒。该实验结果与先前报道的计算预测一致。因此，该研究表明需要最佳的氮掺杂以有效地提高从甲酸生产氢的催化活性。^-1在65°C下。