MOSCOW, August 8 TPU scientists together with their colleagues from China have created a stable and effective catalyst for producing hydrogen. According to them, the new product is seven times more durable and stable than more expensive analogues, which can help increase the production of hydrogen from water not only for the chemical industry, but also for fuel production. The result is presented in iScience.
Recently, hydrogen has been increasingly considered as an energy source, as it has a number of advantages over fossil fuels. Hydrogen atoms are the most common in the Universe, and their production can be classified as a renewable energy source. In addition, a by-product of the combustion of this gas is an environmentally friendly product — water, explained specialists from Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU).
However, obtaining this simple substance in industry is a costly and quite dangerous process, experts clarified.
Hydrogen generation at minimal cost on an industrial scale is carried out using electrolysis — the splitting of water molecules by passing an electric current through it. However, this process requires a catalyst — a substance that reduces electricity costs. Expensive platinum group metals show the greatest catalytic activity in water electrolysis.
As an alternative to existing precious catalysts, scientists from TPU and Jilin University (China) have developed an easy-to-obtain catalyst for water electrolysis based on molybdenum carbide, which, according to them, is seven times more durable than existing analogues.
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«We have developed a structure that is molybdenum oxide on the surface of molybdenum carbide integrated into a graphite matrix with the addition of nitrogen atoms. The synthesis of the new catalyst is simple and energy-efficient compared to direct analogues, and it remains stable for 15 days, while similar catalysts fail after 50 hours of operation,» explained one of the authors of the publication, a researcher at the TPU Laboratory of Advanced Materials for the Energy Industry, Yulia Vasilyeva.
She added that the new catalyst is produced using a vacuum-free electric arc method, which is used to produce superhard materials in the production of abrasives, polishing materials and wear-resistant coatings. Unlike other methods of obtaining carbides of various elements, this one does not require bulky equipment and isolation of the reaction environment; the synthesis takes place in the open air.
«The activity of the catalyst in the hydrogen evolution reaction is estimated by the overvoltage value. For the reference platinum-based catalyst, this value is -31 mV, the closer the overvoltage is to this value, the better. For most existing analogs, which are difficult and expensive to produce, this characteristic is in the average range of -200-250 mV. The overvoltage of our catalyst is -148 mV, while it compares favorably in terms of ease of synthesis,» Vasilyeva emphasized.
In the future, specialists plan to improve the characteristics of the new catalyst and continue the search for more effective compositions.
Tomsk Polytechnic University is a participant in the Priority-2030 program of the Russian national project Science and Universities.
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