scholarly journals Hydrogen production from water electrolysis: role of catalysts

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shan Wang ◽  
Aolin Lu ◽  
Chuan-Jian Zhong

AbstractAs a promising substitute for fossil fuels, hydrogen has emerged as a clean and renewable energy. A key challenge is the efficient production of hydrogen to meet the commercial-scale demand of hydrogen. Water splitting electrolysis is a promising pathway to achieve the efficient hydrogen production in terms of energy conversion and storage in which catalysis or electrocatalysis plays a critical role. The development of active, stable, and low-cost catalysts or electrocatalysts is an essential prerequisite for achieving the desired electrocatalytic hydrogen production from water splitting for practical use, which constitutes the central focus of this review. It will start with an introduction of the water splitting performance evaluation of various electrocatalysts in terms of activity, stability, and efficiency. This will be followed by outlining current knowledge on the two half-cell reactions, hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER), in terms of reaction mechanisms in alkaline and acidic media. Recent advances in the design and preparation of nanostructured noble-metal and non-noble metal-based electrocatalysts will be discussed. New strategies and insights in exploring the synergistic structure, morphology, composition, and active sites of the nanostructured electrocatalysts for increasing the electrocatalytic activity and stability in HER and OER will be highlighted. Finally, future challenges and perspectives in the design of active and robust electrocatalysts for HER and OER towards efficient production of hydrogen from water splitting electrolysis will also be outlined.

Nanoscale ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (47) ◽  
pp. 24244-24250
Author(s):  
Wenjun He ◽  
Fangqing Wang ◽  
Dongbo Jia ◽  
Ying Li ◽  
Limin Liang ◽  
...  

The development of low-cost, high-activity, durable non-precious metal bifunctional electrocatalysts is of great importance in the production of hydrogen by water electrolysis.


Nanoscale ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 2202-2210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shasha Tang ◽  
Xing Wang ◽  
Yongqi Zhang ◽  
Marc Courté ◽  
Hong Jin Fan ◽  
...  

In the quest for mass production of hydrogen from water electrolysis, to develop highly efficient, stable and low-cost catalysts is still the central challenge.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. 5769-5778 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gengwei Zhang ◽  
Bin Wang ◽  
Jinglei Bi ◽  
Dangqi Fang ◽  
Shengchun Yang

Exploring highly efficient non-noble-metal bifunctional catalysts for water electrolysis is vital for the commercial production of hydrogen.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dionisio H. Malagón-Romero ◽  
Alexander Ladino ◽  
Nataly Ortiz ◽  
Liliana P. Green

Hydrogen is expected to play an important role as a clean, reliable and renewable energy source. A key challenge is the production of hydrogen in an economically and environmentally sustainable way on an industrial scale. One promising method of hydrogen production is via biological processes using agricultural resources, where the hydrogen is found to be mixed with other gases, such as carbon dioxide. Thus, to separate hydrogen from the mixture, it is challenging to implement and evaluate a simple, low cost, reliable and efficient separation process. So, the aim of this work was to develop a polymeric membrane for hydrogen separation. The developed membranes were made of polysulfone via phase inversion by a controlled evaporation method with 5 wt % and 10 wt % of polysulfone resulting in thicknesses of 132 and 239 micrometers, respectively. Membrane characterization was performed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and ASTM D882 tensile test. Performance was characterized using a 23 factorial experiment using the time lag method, comparing the results with those from gas chromatography (GC). As a result, developed membranes exhibited dense microstructures, low values of RMS roughness, and glass transition temperatures of approximately 191.75 °C and 190.43 °C for the 5 wt % and 10 wt % membranes, respectively. Performance results for the given membranes showed a hydrogen selectivity of 8.20 for an evaluated gas mixture 54% hydrogen and 46% carbon dioxide. According to selectivity achieved, H2 separation from carbon dioxide is feasible with possibilities of scalability. These results are important for consolidating hydrogen production from biological processes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongmeng Wu ◽  
Cuibo Liu ◽  
Changhong Wang ◽  
Yifu Yu ◽  
Yanmei Shi ◽  
...  

AbstractElectrocatalytic alkyne semi-hydrogenation to alkenes with water as the hydrogen source using a low-cost noble-metal-free catalyst is highly desirable but challenging because of their over-hydrogenation to undesired alkanes. Here, we propose that an ideal catalyst should have the appropriate binding energy with active atomic hydrogen (H*) from water electrolysis and a weaker adsorption with an alkene, thus promoting alkyne semi-hydrogenation and avoiding over-hydrogenation. So, surface sulfur-doped and -adsorbed low-coordinated copper nanowire sponges are designedly synthesized via in situ electroreduction of copper sulfide and enable electrocatalytic alkyne semi-hydrogenation with over 99% selectivity using water as the hydrogen source, outperforming a copper counterpart without surface sulfur. Sulfur anion-hydrated cation (S2−-K+(H2O)n) networks between the surface adsorbed S2− and K+ in the KOH electrolyte boost the production of active H* from water electrolysis. And the trace doping of sulfur weakens the alkene adsorption, avoiding over-hydrogenation. Our catalyst also shows wide substrate scopes, up to 99% alkenes selectivity, good reducible groups compatibility, and easily synthesized deuterated alkenes, highlighting the promising potential of this method.


2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (75) ◽  
pp. 2383-2395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Mahdi Najafpour ◽  
Fahimeh Rahimi ◽  
Eva-Mari Aro ◽  
Choon-Hwan Lee ◽  
Suleyman I. Allakhverdiev

There has been a tremendous surge in research on the synthesis of various metal compounds aimed at simulating the water-oxidizing complex (WOC) of photosystem II (PSII). This is crucial because the water oxidation half reaction is overwhelmingly rate-limiting and needs high over-voltage (approx. 1 V), which results in low conversion efficiencies when working at current densities required for hydrogen production via water splitting. Particular attention has been given to the manganese compounds not only because manganese has been used by nature to oxidize water but also because manganese is cheap and environmentally friendly. The manganese–calcium cluster in PSII has a dimension of about approximately 0.5 nm. Thus, nano-sized manganese compounds might be good structural and functional models for the cluster. As in the nanometre-size of the synthetic models, most of the active sites are at the surface, these compounds could be more efficient catalysts than micrometre (or bigger) particles. In this paper, we focus on nano-sized manganese oxides as functional and structural models of the WOC of PSII for hydrogen production via water splitting and review nano-sized manganese oxides used in water oxidation by some research groups.


Author(s):  
Qiucheng Xu ◽  
Jiahao Zhang ◽  
Haoxuan Zhang ◽  
Liyue Zhang ◽  
Ling Chen ◽  
...  

Alkaline water splitting, especially the anion-exchange-membrane based water electrolysis, is an attractive way for low-cost and scalable H2 production. Green electricity-driven alkaline water electrolysis is requested to develop highly-efficient electrocatalysts...


Author(s):  
Cheng Wang ◽  
Hongyuan Shang ◽  
Hui Xu ◽  
Yukou Du

Non-noble-metal nanoboxes with abundant surface active sites, facilitated electron/mass transport, favorable synergistic effects and electronic effects, serving as promising candidate materials for boosting electrochemical water splitting.


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 4787-4792 ◽  
Author(s):  
Da Wang ◽  
Ning Liu ◽  
Zhongnan Guo ◽  
Wenjun Wang ◽  
Liwei Guo ◽  
...  

The spatial separation of the photo-generated electrons and holes between the polar Si-{0001} and non-polar {10−10} crystal facets on 6H-SiC highly improves the photocatalytic activity of water splitting by nearly 5 times.


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