hydrogen fuel tagged posts

Water reduction by a p-GaInP2 photoelectrode stabilized by an amorphous TiO2 coating and a molecular cobalt catalyst: Surface modification strategies for the p-GaInP2 photoelectrodes.

This work shows that molecular catalysts can be as highly active as the precious metal-based catalysts. NREL’s scientists took a different approach to the PEC process, which uses solar energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The process requires special semiconductors, the PEC materials and catalysts to split the water. Previous work used precious metals such as platinum, ruthenium and iridium as catalysts attached to the semiconductors. A large-scale commercial effort using those precious metals wouldn’t be cost-effective, however.

The use of cheaper molecular catalysts instead of precious metals has...

Bathed in simulated sunlight, this photoelectrolysis cell in the lab of Song Jin, a professor of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, splits water into hydrogen and oxygen using a catalyst made of the abundant elements cobalt, phosphorus and sulfur. Credit: David Tenenbaum/University of Wisconsin-Madison

Jin’s research team reports a hydrogen-making catalyst containing phosphorus and sulfur – both common elements – and cobalt, a metal that is 1,000 times cheaper than platinum. This is in answer to the major roadblock to “hydrogen economy”, ie the need for platinum or other expensive noble metals in the water-splitting devices. Noble metals are normally used as they resist oxidation and include many of the precious metals, such as platinum, palladium, iridium and gold.

Catalyst...

A team of chemists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison has introduced a new fuel cell catalyst approach that uses a molecular catalyst system instead of solid catalysts.
Credit: Stahl Group/University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Instead of expensive platinum etc, a metal-free alternative catalyst for fuel cells may be at hand. A team of chemists from University of Wisconsin-Madison introduces a new approach that uses a molecular catalyst system instead of solid catalysts. Although molecular catalysts have been explored before, earlier examples were much less efficient than the traditional platinum catalyst.

A fuel cell converts chemical energy into electricity by reacting H2 and O2 at 2 different electrodes. A catalyst makes the reaction more efficient.
Prof Stahl and scientist Gerken took...