Hydrogen Generation at Ambient Conditions: Application in Fuel Cells

The efficient generation of hydrogen from formic acid/amine adducts at ambient temperature is demonstrated. The highest catalytic activity (TOF up to 3630 h−1 after 20 min) was observed in the presence of in situ generated ruthenium phosphine catalysts. Compared to the previously known methods to generate hydrogen from liquid feedstocks, the systems presented here can be operated at room temperature without the need for any high‐temperature reforming processes, and the hydrogen produced can then be directly used in fuel cells. A variety of Ru precursors and phosphine ligands were investigated for the decomposition of formic acid/amine adducts. These catalytic systems are particularly interesting for the generation of H2 for new applications in portable electric devices. Fuelling the future: Hydrogen can be generated from formic acid/amine adducts at room temperature and used directly in fuel cells. Ruthenium phosphine systems are active catalysts in this transformation. High turnover numbers are observed for [{RuCl2(benzene)}2] in the presence of the bidentate ligand 1,2‐bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane. A similar enhancement in catalytic activities is observed with ruthenium bromide complexes.