Researchers at University Of Wisconsin Discover New Catalyst for Hydrogen Economy

Since in the conventional systems presently employed electricity is used for splitting water and producing hydrogen, some quarters are questioning the true benefits that a hydrogen economy can bring to the environment. They were able to achieve this by simply combining sulfur and phosphorus, two very common elements with cobalt, a metal which is 1000 times cheaper than platinum.

The research team of the University of Wisconsin, composed of Miguel Caban-Acevedo and Michael Stone, and led by Professor Song Jin, discovered a panacea for the cost-prohibiting noble metals.

On a press release delivered by the UW-Madison, Jin said: “We have demonstrated a proof of concept device for using this cobalt catalyst and solar energy to drive hydrogen generation, which also has the best reported efficiency for systems that rely only on affordable catalysts and materials to convert directly from sunlight to hydrogen”. Most catalysts that are used to draw hydrogen from water are made out of noble metals.

Hydrogen is usually produced by separating water with electrical power.

The advance emerges from a long line of research in Jin’s lab that has focused on the use of iron pyrite and other cheap, abundant materials for energy transformation. They replaced iron to make cobalt pyrite and then added phosphorus, getting the impressive high-performance catalyst.

Researchers at Wisconsin say their new catalyst additionally works with sunlight-powered water-splitting units. They’ve created a highly efficient catalyst that could ease the way to a hydrogen economy.

There are a number of researchers that are trying to find a cheap replacement for platinum. The high cost of this material makes fuel cells somewhat unattractive when they are compared to other renewable energy solutions. According to a report from the Engineer, the team has found a new catalyst that could significantly reduce the cost of hydrogen production. There is always a tradeoff: If you want to build the best electrolyzer, you still want to use platinum. Irrespective of whether we imagine producing hydrogen direct from sunlight or using electricity, we need several square miles with appropriate devices to garner that quantum of hydrogen. “And there might not be enough platinum to do that”, Jin concluded.