Robust and Inexpensive Catalysts for Hydrogen Production

Teams of scientists from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) and the University of Warwick were able to observe the smallest details of hydrogen production with the synthetic mineral pentlandite. This makes it possible to develop strategies for the design of robust and cost-effective catalysts for hydrogen production. The working groups of Prof Dr Wolfgang Schuhmann and Dr Ulf-Peter Apfel from the RUB and the team headed by Prof Dr Patrick R. Unwin from the University of Warwick report in the journal Angewandte Chemie of 9 March 2018.

Hydrogen gas is considered a possible future source of energy and can be produced from water using platinum catalysts and electricity. However, alternative catalysts made of cheaper and more readily available materials with equally high efficiency are barely known.

Electrodes without precious metals

There are a number of materials that, like platinum, are able to catalyse the reaction of water into hydrogen. “These include metal chalcogenides such as the mineral pentlandite, which is just as efficient as platinum and is also significantly more stable towards catalyst poisons such as sulphur”, explains Ulf-Peter Apfel. Pentlandite consists of iron, nickel and sulphur. Its structure is similar to that of the catalytic centres of hydrogen-producing enzymes found in a variety of sources, including green algae.

Read more at Ruhr-University Bochum

Image: The team from Bochum in the laboratory: Tsvetan Tarnev, Corina Andronescu and Mathias Smialkowski (from the left). (Credit: RUB, Marquard)