Low cost catalyst a boost for hydrogen production

Hydrogen, which some claim will be the dominant automotive fuel of the future, is usually produced by separating water with electrical power, a process which typically relies on platinum or other expensive noble metals to help the water-splitting process.

However, according to a report in Nature Materials, a new hydrogen-making catalyst containing phosphorus and sulphur and cobalt, could offer a highly effective, lower cost alternative to existing catalysts.

According to Prof Song Jin, who led the research team, the new catalyst is almost as efficient as platinum and appears to show the highest catalytic performance among the non-noble metal catalysts reported so far.

The advance emerges from a long line of research in Jin’s lab that has focused on the use of iron pyrite and other inexpensive, abundant materials for energy transformation. Jin and his students discovered the new catalyst by replacing iron to make cobalt pyrite, and then added phosphorus.