Chinese scholars have developed a catalyst to significantly reduce the cost of "water-based hydrogen"

Hydrogen energy is a kind of high-energy, clean renewable energy, low-cost and high-efficiency preparation of hydrogen by electrolyte water, is one of the hot spots of international scientific research. Recently, Professor Song Li and Professor Jiang Jun of the University of Science and Technology of China collaborated on innovative ideas to design a platinum metal catalyst with a "pine fruit structure" that reduces the amount of platinum metal to about 1/75 of the traditional commercial catalyst without the same hydrogen production effect. Recently, the internationally renowned academic journal Nature Energy published the results of the study

.
hydrogen energy is considered to be the "ultimate energy source", electrolyte water is one of the most popular preparation methods. Catalysts are needed in the process of electrolytic water, but there is atomic "busy and unequist" in the catalytic process: the main ones involved in the reaction are the atoms on the surface of the platinum metal catalyst, while the platinum atoms on the inner layer are "doing nothing", resulting in waste of resources and high cost.
Recently, chinese University of Science and Technology researchers came up with a good way to make the previous flat catalyst into a spherical "pine fruit", so that platinum atoms are located on the surface of the "pine fruit", ensuring that they are all in the "production line." As a result, the previous two-dimensional plane reaction was transformed into a three-dimensional reaction.
results show that when the reactants in the electrolyte solution pass through this "pine fruit-shaped" catalyst, the efficiency of hydrogen formation is greatly increased. With the same amount of hydrogen produced, the platinum metal required for this new catalyst is only about 1/75 of the traditional commercial catalyst, which greatly reduces the cost of hydrogen production.
, this study also deepens the understanding of the relationship between catalyst effect and structure, and points out the direction for further optimizing catalyst performance.