Russian scientists received a new electrocatalyst for the production of hydrogen and oxygen from water. This was reported by the press service of the RNF.
Hydrogen is considered a promising “green” fuel, since its combustion does not produce harmful emissions. There are two main ways to produce it – electrolysis of water and extraction from natural gas, only electrolysis (or chemical decomposition) of water provides zero carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. At the same time, oxygen is released from the water, which is necessary for ventilation of the lungs in medicine, metal production and many other industries. Efficient electrolysis requires suitable catalysts and it is desirable to avoid the use of platinum and other precious metals. In recent years, technologists have begun to use nickel and copper compounds for these purposes, but due to the very large particles of these metals obtained, the decomposition reaction is slower than it can be.
Specialists of the Physical-Technical Institute named after AF. Ioffe of the Russian Academy of Sciences and colleagues have developed a new type of catalyst consisting of carbon microtubes coated with nickel and copper. The coatings were synthesized by electrodeposition from complex ammonium-sulfosalicylic electrolytes, that is, organic ligands that are more complex in structure than those usually used in such problems. Electrodeposition is the release of metal on the surface of an electrode as a result of an electrochemical reaction.
The authors succeeded in creating very thin coatings with metal nanoparticles: the thickness of the tubes was about 1.2 nm in the case of the Ni-carbon system and about 0.5 nm in the case of the Ni-Cu-carbon. The samples were examined using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray and electrochemical methods. Thus, due to the transition from a simple synthesis method to a complex method, it was possible to increase the electrochemically active surface area of materials: catalysts, respectively, from 265 to 1400 cm2 for nickel and 780 cm2 for nickel-copper. This will allow hydrogen to be released more efficiently, and using carbon fiber as a substrate will make the material cheaper, more environmentally friendly, and with less metal consumption.
In the future, the authors hope to improve the production efficiency of these catalysts by optimizing the electrolyte composition and deposition rate. Additionally, sulfosalicylic acid could potentially be replaced with a more environmentally friendly citric acid.
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