Scientists develop new strategy to split water for generating hydrogen, giving impetus to green energy

Indian scientists have developed a new strategy for enhancing the activity of catalysts used to split water for generating Hydrogen, one of the cleanest known fuels. This opens new possibilities for designing cost-effective and efficient catalysts for water splitting, contributing to the larger pursuit of clean and sustainable hydrogen energy.

A team at the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences explored the use of co-ordination polymers (COPs) in the process. COPs have emerged as promising electro-catalysts owing to their well-dispersed metal active sites and the ability to modulate their catalytic activity through various activation strategies, the researchers said.

CPOs are inorganic or organo-metallic materials where metal ions are linked together to form an extended structure in one, two or three dimensions. They have diverse applications, including catalysis, gas storage and luminescent materials. However, they have a limitation since they are fully coordinated by solvent and water molecules, leaving few active sites for electro-catalysis and limiting their direct application.

In the electrolysis of water, which is central to clean hydrogen production, the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) has long remained a challenge due to its sluggish kinetics and higher over-potential requirements compared to the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Developing noble-metal-free catalysts that can efficiently drive OER is therefore a pressing research priority, according to information shared by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Researchers employed argon plasma treatment, activating the COP, which enhanced catalytic performance while preserving the structural integrity and bulk structure of the polymer. While the pristine materials displayed high onset potentials and sluggish performance for oxygen evolution in alkaline media, their activity was significantly boosted after argon plasma treatment.

According to the research, published in American Chemical Society’s Applied Nano Materials, a peer reviewed journal, the plasma-activated COPs demonstrated remarkable improvements in electro-catalytic performance and demonstrated an effective strategy to enhance the intrinsic activity of coordination-polymer-based electro-catalysts through structural modification, while preserving their overall integrity.