Photocatalyst sheds light on hydrogen production

The team from Rice University’s Laboratory for Nanophotonics, Syzygy Plasmonics Inc. and Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment have created a scalable catalyst that needs light to convert ammonia into hydrogen fuel. The research is published online in Science.

The pace of chemical reactions typically increases with temperature, and chemical producers have capitalised on this by applying heat on an industrial scale using fossil fuels, leaving a significant carbon footprint. Chemical producers also spend billions of dollars each year on thermocatalysts that speed up reactions under intense heating.

“Transition metals like iron are typically poor thermocatalysts,” said study co-author Naomi Halas of Rice. “This work shows they can be efficient plasmonic photocatalysts. It also demonstrates that photocatalysis can be efficiently performed with inexpensive LED photon sources.” 

“This discovery paves the way for sustainable, low-cost hydrogen that could be produced locally rather than in massive, centralised plants,” said Rice co-author Peter Nordlander.