Green hydrogen: efficient and long-lasting “graphene-heart” catalyst

18-Dec-2024 - Cell Reports Physical Science publishes today the discovery of a new method developed by a team of researchers from three Italy’s Research Council (CNR) Institutes to understand the temporal evolution on an atomic scale under operating conditions of a new low-cost and high-efficiency catalyst called “NiGraf” for the electrolytic production of hydrogen from water.

The method used the high-intensity X-ray beam of the accelerator at Brookhaven National Laboratory, in the United States of America. In this way it was possible to understand the structural evolution of the electrocatalyst on an atomic scale inside an electrolytic cell during the oxygen evolution reaction: a very important step for the development of new electrocatalysts for the production of hydrogen from water.

The work is the outcome of collaboration of researchers from three CNR Institutes: the Insitute of Crystallography based in Bari, the Institute for the Study of Nanostructured Materials in Palermo, and the Institute of Organometallic Compounds in Florence. The team was led by Mario Pagliaro (Palermo), Cinzia Giannini (Bari) and Alessandro Lavacchi (Florence).

“Both methods to make the special planar structure of graphene interact advantageously with the crystal lattice of nickel-based nanoparticles and to understand its temporal evolution on an atomic scale have general value for the development of new electrocatalysts for the production of hydrogen from water”, explain Rocco Caliandro from the Institute of Crystallography and Enrico Berretti from the Institute of Organometallic Compounds, first authors of the study.

In the world, approximately 60 million tons of hydrogen are produced every year: of these, 600,000 are obtained by splitting water electrolytically on electrodes in which the catalytic material is nickel, an abundant and low-cost metal. When the electricity used in the process is derived from renewable energy sources such as sun, water and wind, “green” hydrogen is obtained, which is then reconverted into water in hydrogen fuel cells, making the stored energy available in a programmable way. For this reason, low-cost electrolysis is considered one of the key technologies of the energy transition. To lower its cost, it is necessary, among other things, to develop new, more efficient and durable catalytic materials.

The studies were funded by the the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) as part of the hydrogen research initiatives within the Next Generation EU recovery programme. “This result, made possible by the collaboration between different CNR Institutes” conclude Giannini, Lavacchi and Pagliaro “demonstrates once again how it is the large national projects that can give Italian research the critical mass necessary to achieve substantial  scientific advances, and not simple incremental research”.

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