Ionic liquid microemulsion mediated synthesis of Pt/TiO2 nanocomposites for ammonia borane hydrolysis

Tunable microstructure of microemulsion self-assembly systems has the prominent application as nanoreactors in reaction processes. Scientific and technological interest in microemulsions derived from the confinement effect of polar or nonpolar domains for hydrophilic/hydrophobic molecules. Benefiting from the tunable nature, ionic liquids-based self-assembly systems have been demonstrated as a versatile platform for catalytic reaction , drug delivery, functional materials fabrication and among others. In this work, ionic liquids microemulsions were designed by using ionic liquids as apolar phase and surfactant . The phase equilibrium and microstructure were studied through phase diagram , conductivity method and dynamic light scattering . Ionic liquids-in-water microemulsions were proposed as nanoreactor for fabrication of nanosized platinum/titanium dioxide composites. The size, morphology and catalytic performance can be tuned by the microemulsion structure through its confinement effect. The hydrolysis of ammonia borane catalyzed by these composites exhibits better catalytic activity with higher turnover frequency and lower activation energy of the reaction. It is believed that the nanoreactors constructed from versatile ionic liquids will provide new guidance in designing advanced scientific applications.