Researchers Develop Inexpensive Catalyst to Generate Hydrogen from Water
6 May 2010 | Green Technology | No Comments
Until now, scientists have found several ways to generate hydrogen from water, but most of them requires to use organic additives in catalysts. The old methods were somehow effective but the cost of materials used in this process was too high. So, Researchers at University of California, Berkeley and the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have found a new type of catalyst, seventy times cheaper than platinum. This new catalyst works well in neutral water, even if it’s dirty.
“Our catalyst can operate in sea water, the most abundant source of hydrogen on earth and a natural electrolyte…These qualities make our catalyst ideal for renewable energy and sustainable chemistry.”, said Hemamala Karunadasa, one of the co-discoverers of this complex. “The basic scientific challenge has been to create earth-abundant molecular systems that produce hydrogen from water with high catalytic activity and stability…We believe our discovery of a molecular molybdenum-oxo catalyst for generating hydrogen from water without the use of additional acids or organic co-solvents establishes a new chemical paradigm for creating reduction catalysts that are highly active and robust in aqueous media.”, researchers said.
They have found a high valence metal (PY5Me2)Mo-oxo able to generate hydrogen from water with a turnover frequency of 2.4 moles of hydrogen per mole of catalyst per second. “This metal-oxo complex represents a distinct molecular motif for reduction catalysis that has high activity and stability in water. We are now focused on modifying the PY5Me ligand portion of the complex and investigating other metal complexes based on similar ligand platforms to further facilitate electrical charge-driven as well as light-driven catalytic processes. Our particular emphasis is on chemistry relevant to sustainable energy cycles.”
Tags: catalysts, generate hydrogen from water, high valence metal, light-driven catalytic processes, metal-oxo complex, molybdenum-oxo catalyst, natural electrolyte, organic catalyst, platinum catalyst, sustainable chemistry