Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati researchers have engineered a groundbreaking, low-cost catalyst from nickel salt and an organic molecule, significantly advancing the production of green hydrogen from water to support sustainable energy initiatives.
Photograph: Denis Balibouse/Reuters
Key Points
- IIT-Guwahati researchers developed a low-cost catalyst for hydrogen production from water.
- The catalyst uses an inexpensive nickel salt combined with an anthracene-based organic molecule.
- This innovation supports India’s National Green Hydrogen Mission and sustainable energy goals.
- The new catalyst offers high efficiency, converting nearly 88% electrical energy to split water.
- It provides a cleaner alternative to traditional hydrogen production methods that rely on fossil fuels.
Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati have developed a low-cost catalyst to produce hydrogen from water, which can help support the country’s National Green Hydrogen Mission and accelerate the transition to sustainable energy sources, a statement said.
Hydrogen is considered an important part of the global shift to clean energy. When hydrogen is used to produce energy, it generates only water as a byproduct, unlike petroleum-based fuels that release pollutants.
Hydrogen is also used in fuel cells and serves as a raw material in several industrial processes, including the production of fertilisers.
Currently, 90-95 per cent of hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels. ‘Grey’ and ‘blue’ hydrogen are produced from natural gas, and ‘brown’ and ‘black’ hydrogen from coal.
Their production releases greenhouse gases, which negates the environmental benefits of using hydrogen.
Water is the cleanest source of hydrogen, and producing hydrogen from water through electrolysis requires efficient catalysts, with researchers around the world studying different materials for this purpose.
The most effective catalysts currently available are made from rare and expensive noble metals, which limits their large-scale use.
Addressing The Cost Barrier In Hydrogen Production
To address this, the IIT-Guwahati researchers used a nickel salt, which is inexpensive and widely available, as one of the components of the water-splitting catalyst.
However, nickel salt alone is not efficient enough for hydrogen production and it lacks stability.
The researchers combined a nickel salt with an anthracene-based organic molecule.
Explaining the work, Akshai Kumar, associate professor, Department of Chemistry at IIT-Guwahati, who led the study, said, “We synthesised the coordination polymer (CP) based catalyst where the anthracene units are interlinked via the nickel nodes in a simple process at room temperature, aided by ultrasonic waves.”
“In these materials, metal atoms are connected by organic molecules, forming an extended network. The structure provides a high density of active sites for the hydrogen evolution reaction and allows for efficient electron transport through the material,” he said.
Findings of this study have been published in the ‘Journal of Materials Chemistry A’, in a paper co-authored by Kumar in collaboration with Kalishankar Bhattacharyya, assistant professor, Department of Chemistry, along with research scholars Niharika Tanwar, Jumana Ishrat and Khadimul Islam, all from IIT-Guwahati.
Understanding The Catalyst’s High Efficiency
Providing theoretical insights into this work, Bhattacharyya said, “The results reveal a significant synergic effect in the combination of nickel and the anthracene-based framework, with each component enhancing the performance of the other.”
The catalyst was also stable during long-term operation.
The researchers also found that nearly 88 per cent of the electrical energy was used to split water. Such low wastage is essential to develop practical systems for large-scale hydrogen production.
The team carried out chemical analysis and modelling studies to understand why the catalyst performed well, and found that the nickel atoms formed a three-dimensional network with the anthracene moiety, the statement added.
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