Hydrogen extraction could be game-changer

Led by Licheng Sun, professor of molecular electronics at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, the researchers concluded that precious metals can be replaced by a much cheaper combination of nickel, iron and copper (NiFeCu).

"The new alloy can be used to split water into hydrogen,” says researcher Peili Zhang. “This catalyst becomes more efficient than the technologies available today, and significantly cheaper.

“This technology could enable a large-scale hydrogen production economy.” Hydrogen can be used for example to reduce carbon dioxide from steel production or to produce diesel and aircraft fuel.

It’s not the first time a cheaper material has been proposed for water splitting, but the researchers argue that their solution is more effective than others. They published their results in the scientific journal Nature Communication. “The high catalytic performance of core-shell NiFeCu for water oxidation is attributed to the synergistic effect of Ni, Fe and Cu,” Zhang says.

Zhang says that copper plays an interesting role in the preparation of the electrode. In an aqueous solution, surface copper dissolves and leave a very porous structure to enhance the electrochemically active surface area.

"The porous oxide shell with its high electrochemically active surface area is responsible for the catalytic activity, while the metallic cores work as facile electron transport highways," Zhang says.

Licheng Sun has previously made progress in the field of research, including the construction of artificial photosynthesis and a catalyst based on nickel and vanadium. His and colleagues' research was one of the reasons that the President Barack Obama visited KTH in September 2013.

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Image credit: KTH.