The chemical symbols correspond to the catalyst material investigated at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI. The red balls represent oxygen atoms.
Paul Scherrer Institut / Emiliana Fabbri
Storage in the form of hydrogen occurs by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen in an electrolyser using electricity from solar or wind energy. The PSI researchers’ new material accelerates the splitting of water molecules by acting as a catalyst.
PSI researcher Emiliana Fabbri says, "We wanted to develop an efficient but less expensive catalyst that worked without using noble metals." In this process, the researchers use a so-called perovskite, a complex compound of the elements barium, strontium, cobalt, iron and oxygen. What makes the compound special is that it is produced in the form of minute nanoparticles to provide the largest possible surface area for the electrochemical reaction.
Large quantities of nanopowder can be produced
At the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Eidgenössische Materialprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt – Empa), a so-called flame-spray device was used to produce the nanopowder. With this device, various materials can be produced in powder form. The material’s constituent parts are sent through a flame where they merge and quickly solidify into small particles once they leave the flame.
The researchers have used this production method to deliver large quantities of the catalyst powder and are certain that this method can be scaled up for industrial production. The catalyst was tested in cooperation with an electrolyser manufacturer in the US. The device was shown to operate more reliably with the new perovskite than with a conventional iridium-oxide catalyst according to PSI and Empa.