New Non-Noble Metal Catalyst for Hydrogen Production by Electrolysis of Water Discovered by Westlake University
TapTechNews August 21 news, the research team of Westlake University successfully synthesized a non-noble metal catalyst that can be used for hydrogen production by electrolysis of water - CAPist-L1.
Since May 2022, when this new catalytic material was immersed in alkaline water, it has been working stably for more than 19,000 hours at an ampere-level current density, and the surface is still continuously generating bubbles without any sign of decline. Its catalytic efficiency and stability are far superior to the catalysts that have been publicly reported.
CAPist-L1 shows excellent industrial application prospects due to its simple preparation process, low cost, high repeatability, easy scalability, and extremely high OER activity and stability.
According to the introduction, this research was purely accidental. When team members were preparing nickel-iron-based OER catalysts using the immersion method, they used ethanol (alcohol) as deionized water, and it was found that the catalyst grown on nickel foam had very good OER performance.
The research team then explored from the theoretical level and continuously improved and optimized the preparation plan, and successfully developed a catalyst preparation process based on a non-uniform nucleation liquid phase system.
In terms of mechanism research, by analyzing item by item the composition, structure and morphology of CAPist-L1, it was found that there is a dense transition layer between the catalytic layer and the metal substrate. It is the existence of this dense transition layer that firmly anchors the catalytic layer on the metal substrate, improving the activity and stability of the catalyst.
The preparation process of CAPist-L1 is simple and low-cost. Immerse the nickel foam in the prepared non-uniform nucleation liquid phase system, soak it at 25°C for 24 hours, take it out, rinse it with deionized water, and dry it to obtain it.
TapTechNews attached the paper address: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41929-024-01209-1