Electrolysis advance points to hydrogen storage

Ben Wiley, a professor of chemistry at Duke University, North Carolina and his team recently tested three new materials that might be used as a porous, flow-through electrode to improve the efficiency of electrolysis. Their goal was to increase the surface area of the electrode for reactions, while avoiding trapping the gas bubbles that are produced.

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"The maximum rate at which hydrogen is produced is limited by the bubbles blocking the electrode - literally blocking the water from getting to the surface and splitting," Wiley said in a statement.

In a paper published in Advanced Energy Materials, they compared three different configurations of a porous electrode through which the alkaline water can flow as the reaction occurs.

They fabricated three kinds of flow-through electrodes, each a 4mm square of sponge-like material, just 1mm thick. One was made of a nickel foam, one was a 'felt' made of nickel microfibres, and the third was a felt made of nickel-copper nanowires.