Green hydrogen – energy of the future? (Photo: Freepik, Another69)
Brussels/Lausanne-With cathodes that contain the frequently occurring and thus inexpensive elements nickel and molybdenum instead of expensive precious metals from the platinum group, hydrogen production should be significantly reduced by electrolysis. The use of this metals is not new, but researchers from 9 EU countries, Switzerland and Great Britain is within the EU project “Anemel” Successful to make the electrodes produced from it as effective as those with precious metals.
Breakthrough with galvanization
With the same materials, other researchers have already tried it, albeit with moderate success. The effectiveness, i.e. the speed of the water splitting, was less than with precious metal electrodes, and the stability was not sufficient.
The Anemel researchers made the electrodes in a galvanic way. The conductive surface on which the catalyst should grow into is immersed in a liquid in which there are ions of the selected metals, i.e. atoms that lack at least one electron. These are electrically loaded so that they can be moved by an electric field.
This field is chosen in such a way that the ions are accelerated towards the surface and settle on it. Gradually, this creates a catalytically effective layer. How the ions are arranged there is crucial for the effectiveness of the alloy. This can be influenced, among other things, by the strength of the electrical field.
The researchers have changed parameters such as electricity strength and ion concentration until the layer built up so that it best supported the water splitting and thus hydrogen production. As a base, substrate, the researchers chose coal paper that is electrically conductive.
Long -lived than platinum electrodes
The performance is just as good as that of platinum catalysts and even exceed them in stability, the researchers confirm. This means that the exchange intervals can be selected larger, the downtimes that reduce the overall effectiveness, i.e. lose weight.
“These electrodes bring us one step closer to the large-scale production of competitive green hydrogen,” says Ariana Serban, doctoral student of electrochemistry at the Swiss Anemel partner, who Swiss Federal University of Technology Lausannethat has significantly influenced the development.
Source: www.pressetext.com
(PTE003/30.01.2025/06: 05)