Cheaper method to create hydrogen fuel from water discovered

Scientists discover cheap, abundant material to use as an alternative catalyst for splitting water to create hydrogen fuel

A hydrogen-fuel economy could be one step closer to reality with the discovery of a cheap, stable and efficient means of getting hydrogen from water.

Scientists at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm now report that they have unlocked one major barrier to exploiting this renewable energy source; a cheap alternative to catalysts used for electrochemical oxidation (water splitting).

Currently, the best-performing catalysts are expensive precious metals. However, the KTH research team led by Professor Licheng Sun reported that it has discovered that a new material composed of common earth-abundant elements could be used as a catalyst for water splitting, which could help change the economics of large scale hydrogen fuel production. 

The new material is a monolayered double hydroxide involving nickel and vanadium, which acts as a electrocatalyst for water oxidation. The low-cost, highly efficient nickel-vanadium monolayer outperforms other electrocatalysts that are composed of non-precious materials, said researcher Ke Fan. It also offers a competitive, cheap alternative to catalysts that rely on more expensive, precious materials, such as iridium oxide (IrO2) or ruthenium oxide (RuO2).

"This is the first time that the metal, vanadium, has been used to dope nickel hydroxide to form a water oxidation catalyst, and it works very well — even beyond our expectations," Fan said. "No doubt this material can greatly expand the scope of non-precious metal elements of electrocatalysts, and it opens new areas for water splitting."

The material possesses a layered structure with monolayer nickel-vanadium oxygen polyhedron connected together with a thickness below 1 nanometer, said researcher Hong Chen. 

"This monolayer feature not only increases the active surface area, but also enhances the electron transfer within the material," Chen said.

Sun expects the research to “open a new area of low-cost water oxidation catalysts, featuring stability and efficiencies that equal or even surpass some of today’s best catalysts including RuO2 and IrO2.”