波音游戏-波音娱乐城赌球打不开

New! Sign up for our free email newsletter.
Science News
from research organizations

Cheap and efficient catalyst could boost renewable energy storage

Date:
September 19, 2023
Source:
Imperial College London
Summary:
Storing renewable energy as hydrogen could soon become much easier thanks to a new catalyst based on single atoms of platinum.
Share:
FULL STORY

Storing renewable energy as hydrogen could soon become much easier thanks to a new catalyst based on single atoms of platinum.

The new catalyst, designed by researchers at City University Hong Kong (CityU) and tested by colleagues at Imperial College London, could be cheaply scaled up for mass use.

Co-author Professor Anthony Kucernak, from the Department of Chemistry at Imperial, said: "The UK Hydrogen Strategy sets out an ambition to reach 10GW of low-carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030. To facilitate that goal, we need to ramp up the production of cheap, easy-to-produce and efficient hydrogen storage. The new electrocatalyst could be a major contributor to this, ultimately helping the UK meet its net-zero goals by 2050."

Renewable energy generation, from sources like wind and solar, is rapidly growing. However, some of the energy generated needs to be stored for when weather conditions are unfavourable for wind and sun. One promising way to do this is to save the energy in the form of hydrogen, which can be stored and transported for later use.

To do this, the renewable energy is used to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, with the energy stored in the hydrogen atoms. This uses platinum catalysts to spur a reaction that splits the water molecule, which is called electrolysis. However, although platinum is an excellent catalyst for this reaction, it is expensive and rare, so minimising its use is important to reduce system cost and limit platinum extraction.

Now, in a study published this week in Nature, the team have designed and tested a catalyst that uses as little platinum as possible to produce an efficient but cost-effective platform for water splitting.

Lead researcher Professor Zhang Hua, from CityU, said: "Hydrogen generated by electrocatalytic water splitting is regarded as one of the most promising clean energies for replacing fossil fuels in the near future, reducing environmental pollution and the greenhouse effect."

Testing tools

The team's innovation involves dispersing single atoms of platinum in a sheet of molybdenum sulphide (MoS2). This uses much less platinum than existing catalysts and even boosts the performance, as the platinum interacts with the molybdenum to improve the efficiency of the reaction.

Growing the thin catalysts on nanosheet supports allowed the CityU team to create high-purity materials. These were then characterised in Professor Kucernak' lab at Imperial, which has developed methods and models for determining how the catalyst operates.

The Imperial team has the tools for stringent testing because they have developed several technologies that are designed to make use of such catalysts. Professor Kucernak and colleagues have set up several companies based on these technologies, including RFC Power that specialises in hydrogen flow batteries, which could be improved by using the new single-atom platinum catalysts.

Using hydrogen

Once renewable energy is stored as hydrogen, to use it as electricity again it needs to be converted using fuel cells, which produce water vapour as a by-product of an oxygen-splitting reaction. Recently, Professor Kucernak and colleagues revealed a single-atom catalyst for this reaction that is based on iron, instead of platinum, which will also reduce the cost of this technology.

Bramble Energy, another spinout led by Professor Kucernak, will test this technology in their fuel cells. Both single-atoms catalysts -- one helping turn renewable energy into hydrogen storage, and the other helping that energy be released as electricity later -- therefore have the power to bring a hydrogen economy closer to reality.


Story Source:

Materials provided by Imperial College London. Original written by Hayley Dunning. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Zhenyu Shi, Xiao Zhang, Xiaoqian Lin, Guigao Liu, Chongyi Ling, Shibo Xi, Bo Chen, Yiyao Ge, Chaoliang Tan, Zhuangchai Lai, Zhiqi Huang, Xinyang Ruan, Li Zhai, Lujiang Li, Zijian Li, Xixi Wang, Gwang-Hyeon Nam, Jiawei Liu, Qiyuan He, Zhiqiang Guan, Jinlan Wang, Chun-Sing Lee, Anthony R. J. Kucernak, Hua Zhang. Phase-dependent growth of Pt on MoS2 for highly efficient H2 evolution. Nature, 2023; 621 (7978): 300 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06339-3

Cite This Page:

Imperial College London. "Cheap and efficient catalyst could boost renewable energy storage." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 19 September 2023. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230919154859.htm>.
Imperial College London. (2023, September 19). Cheap and efficient catalyst could boost renewable energy storage. ScienceDaily. Retrieved June 2, 2025 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230919154859.htm
Imperial College London. "Cheap and efficient catalyst could boost renewable energy storage." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230919154859.htm (accessed June 2, 2025).

Explore More

from ScienceDaily

RELATED STORIES


百家乐官网网上投注文章| 百家乐分析软件| 做生意开店铺风水大全| 大发888娱乐城 34hytrgwsdfpv| 社会| 在线百家乐游戏软件| 百家乐官网波音平台开户导航| 百家乐技巧-百家乐开户指定代理网址 | 百家乐官网黑牌靴| 大连棋牌网| 百家乐官网几点不用补| 大发888在线娱乐城合作伙伴| 庄浪县| 真人百家乐做假| 百家乐官网赌机厂家| 白金会娱乐场怎么样| 百家乐官网五铺的缆是什么意思| 环球百家乐官网现金网| 最好百家乐的玩法技巧和规则| 自贡百家乐官网娱乐场开户注册| k7娱乐城官网| 威尼斯人娱乐城送钱| 公海百家乐官网的玩法技巧和规则| 大发888上不去| 做生意选店铺位置| bet365 体育在线uo| 百家乐的奥秘| 百家乐官网三路法| 大发888娱乐城充值lm0| 百家乐官网怎样下注| 百家乐官网怎么玩才会赢钱| 百家乐出闲几率| 财神百家乐娱乐城| 24山向吉凶水法| 百家乐官网免费改| 木星百家乐官网的玩法技巧和规则 | 大发888 澳门赌场| 蓝盾百家乐赌城| 百家乐博娱乐网| 叶氏百家乐平注技巧| 赌场百家乐打法|