MOLY & Hydrogen Production H2 still in the running for clean fuel !
A chance discovery may revolutionize hydrogen production
Molybdenum-based catalysts now enable a more cost-effective hydrogen production
Producinghydrogen in a sustainable way is a challenge and production cost is toohigh. A team led by EPFL Professor Xile Hu has discovered that amolybdenum based catalyst is produced at room temperature, inexpensiveand efficient. The results of the research are published online in Chemical Science Thursday the 14th of April. An international patent based on this discovery has just been filled.
Existingin large quantities on Earth, water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen.It can be broken down by applying an electrical current; this is theprocess known as electrolysis. To improve this particularly slowreaction, platinum is generally used as a catalyst. However, platinum isa particularly expensive material that has tripled in price over thelast decade. Now EPFL scientists have shown that amorphous molybdenumsulphides, found abundantly, are efficient catalysts and hydrogenproduction cost can be significantly lowered.
Industrial prospects
Thenew catalysts exhibit many advantageous technical characteristics. Theyare stable and compatible with acidic, neutral or basic conditions inwater. Also, the rate of the hydrogen production is faster than othercatalysts of the same price. The discovery opens up some interestingpossibilities for industrial applications such as in the area of solarenergy storage.
It's only by chance that Daniel Merki, StéphaneFierro, Heron Vrubel and Xile Hu made this discovery during anelectrochemical experience. "It's a perfect illustration of the famousserendipity principle in fundamental research", as Xile Hu emphasizes:"Thanks to this unexpected result, we've revealed a unique phenomenon",he explains. "But we don't yet know exactly why the catalysts are soefficient."
The next stage is to create a prototype that can helpto improve sunlight-driven hydrogen production. But a betterunderstanding of the observed phenomenon is also required in order tooptimize the catalysts.
Links:
Laboratory of Inorganic Synthesis and Catalysis: https://lsci.epfl.ch/
Source:Daniel Merki, Stéphane Fierro, Heron Vrubel and Xile Hu, "AmorphousMolybdenum Sulfide Films as Catalysts for Electrochemical HydrogenProduction in Water," Chemical Science, 2011.