Researchers from Jülich, Aachen, Stanford, and Berkeley have studied the layer-by-layer structure of catalyst material. They have discovered that a surface layer as thin as a single atom can double the activity for the reaction of water splitting – without increasing the energy consumption. This also doubles the amount of hydrogen produced.
The scientists hope that this increased understanding will allow developing better catalysts in the future to produce green hydrogen more energy-efficiently, and thus more cost-effectively, than before. Hydrogen is called green when it is produced by the electrolysis of water in a climate-neutral way using electricity from renewable sources. Hydrogen is regarded as an essential building block of the energy transition, partly because it can store wind and solar energy in times of oversupply and release it again later.
Part of the research results came about at the Peter Gruenberg Institute, Electronic Materials Division, in the Electronic Oxide Cluster Laboratory of Professor Regina Dittmann.
Original publication: ‘Tuning electrochemically driven surface transformation in atomically flat LaNiO3 thin films for enhanced water electrolysis’
C. Baeumer, J. Li, Q. Lu, A. Liang, L. Jin, H. Martins, T. Duchoň, M. Glöß, S. M. Gericke, M. A. Wohlgemuth, M. Giesen, E. E. Penn, R. Dittmann, F. Gunkel, R. Waser, M. Bajdich, S. Nemšák, J. T. Mefford, W. C. Chueh
Nature Materials, 11 January 2021, DOI: 10.1038/s41563-020-00877-1
Find further information on the website of the Jülich Research Centeer
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