Hydrogen is likely to be a key source of renewable fuels for the future, and hydrogen is the most widely distributed substance in the universe and is made in a variety of ways, making it the cleanest way to produce hydrogen from water by a process called electrolysis, But the catalysts needed are rare metals such as platinum, and researchers at Washington State University have now developed a quick and inexpensive alternative to making 'nano-foam' catalysts made of nickel and iron, which they say perform better .
Water electrolysis has not reached industrial scale yet, mainly due to the cost of these catalysts and the high energy inputs required to trigger the reaction, and scientists have addressed this issue by using inexpensive catalysts such as molybdenum sulfide and mixed solid electrolytes.
Researchers at Washington State University use two inexpensive and abundant metals, nickel and iron, as catalysts, using which they create nanofoam, a material that resembles a sponge at the atomic level because of the large surface area associated with water Contact, the nanofoam effectively elicited the reaction and the team found that the material performs better and requires less energy than the expensive catalyst, losing little activity in a stability test within 12 hours.
A large number of nanobubbles can be produced relatively inexpensively in a few minutes.The researchers did not outline the development process, but they described it as a "very easy method that is easy to use in large-scale production." The next step for researchers is Conduct large-scale testing.
The research results have been published in the "nano-energy" journal.
