Green hydrogen: MXenes shows talent as catalyst for oxygen evolution

Catalysts based on MXenes are more stable and efficient than conventional catalysts: Investigations are now revealing the reasons for this

12-Sep-2024 - The MXene class of materials has many talents. An international team led by HZB chemist Michelle Browne has now demonstrated that MXenes, properly functionalised, are excellent catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction in electrolytic water splitting. They are more stable and efficient than the ...

Green hydrogen: Improving the stability of iridium catalysts with titanium oxides

High relevance for practical use

18-Dec-2023 - Anodes for the electrolytic splitting of water are usually iridium-based materials. In order to increase the stability of the iridium catalyst, a team at HZB and a group at HI-ERN have now produced a so-called material library: a sample in which the concentration of iridium and titanium oxides is ...

Green hydrogen: Co-production of valuable chemicals boosts profitability

Co-production concept is very flexible; different products can be produced in the same plant depending on demand

10-Oct-2023 - It is clear that it works: There are already approaches today to use solar energy for the electrolysis of water and to produce hydrogen. Unfortunately, this "green" hydrogen has so far been more expensive than "gray" hydrogen from natural gas. But the production of green hydrogen with sunlight ...

Surface analysis of catalyst particles in aqueous solutions

The results are relevant for the development of efficient photoelectrodes for the production of green hydrogen

25-Jul-2023 - Green hydrogen can be produced directly in a photoelectrochemical cell, splitting water with solar energy. However, this requires the development of super-efficient photoelectrodes that need to combine many talents at the same time: They must be excellent at converting sunlight into electricity, ...

Green hydrogen: How photoelectrochemical water splitting may become competitive

22-Mar-2023 - Sunlight can be used to produce green hydrogen directly from water in photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells. So far, systems based on this "direct approach" have not been energetically competitive. However, the balance changes as soon as some of the hydrogen in such PEC cells is used in-situ for a ...

Electrocatalysis: Iron and Cobalt Oxyhydroxides examined at BESSY II

20-Feb-2023 - A team led by Dr. Prashanth W. Menezes (HZB/TU-Berlin) has now gained insights into the chemistry of one of the most active anode catalysts for green hydrogen production. They examined a series of Cobalt-Iron Oxyhydroxides at BESSY II and were able to determine the oxidation states of the active ...

Photocatalysis: Processes in charge separation recorded experimentally

The results provide clues to increase the efficiency of photocatalysts

11-Nov-2022 - Certain metal oxides are considered good candidates for photocatalysts to produce green hydrogen with sunlight. A Chinese team has now published exciting results on copper(I) oxide particles in Nature, to which a method developed at HZB contributed significantly. Transient surface photovoltage ...

40-million-euro sustainable kerosene research project CARE-O-SENE receives funding

German-South African Consortium starts working to optimise the production of sustainable kerosene

13-Oct-2022 - The international research project CARE-O-SENE (Catalyst Research for Sustainable Kerosene) was granted 30 million euros in funding by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Additionally, the industrial consortium partners contribute 10 million euros. The aim of the project ...

Solar hydrogen: Better photoelectrodes through flash heating

"The heat efficiently reduces structural defects, trap states, grain boundaries, and phase impurities"

07-Apr-2022 - Producing low-cost metal-oxide thin films with high electronic quality for solar water splitting is not an easy task. Especially since quality improvements of the upper metal oxide thin films need thermal processing at high temperatures, which would melt the underlying glass substrate. Now, a ...

Green hydrogen: Why do certain catalysts improve in operation?

Interesting discovery

12-Aug-2021 - Crystalline cobalt arsenide is a catalyst that generates oxygen during electrolytic water splitting in the production of hydrogen. The material is considered to be a model system for an important group of catalysts whose performance increases under certain conditions in the course of ...