Scientists in the US have developed a more efficient way of making hydrogen from water by incorporating a new compound with a platinum catalyst.

Researchers are the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory say they have created a more efficient method for hydrogen production through the addition of nickel-hydroxide to a platinum framework.

The clusters of Ni(OH)2 are said to tear apart the water molecules, allowing for the freed hydrogen to be catalysed by the platinum.

"One of the most important points of this experiment is that we're combining two materials with very different benefits," said Nenad Markovic, an Argonne senior chemist who led the study.

"The advantage of using both oxides and metals in conjunction dramatically improves the catalytic efficiency of the whole system."

Argonne materials chemist George Crabtree explains that catalytic activity is increased by a factor of ten.

"Scaling up from the single crystal to a real-world catalyst, this work illustrates how fundamental understanding leads quickly to innovative new technologies," he added.

The research is reported in the December issue of Science.

Source:

Making molecular hydrogen more efficiently (08/12/11)

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