Kyriakos Stylianou and his team from the OSU College of Science have created a high-speed, high-efficiency photocatalyst for hydrogen production. This new material holds promise for use in fuel cells for cars, chemical manufacturing, metal refining, and plastics production.
Stylianou, who specializes in metal organic frameworks (MOFs)-crystalline, porous materials made up of metal ions and organic molecules-explained that their latest findings could be crucial in combating greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.
MOFs feature nanosized pores and customizable structural properties. In their study, the researchers derived a metal oxide heterojunction from a MOF. This heterojunction, referred to as RTTA, combines ruthenium oxide and titanium oxide doped with sulfur and nitrogen, which when exposed to sunlight, efficiently splits water into hydrogen.
"Among various RTTA materials, RTTA-1, with the lowest ruthenium oxide content, exhibited the fastest hydrogen production rate and a high quantum yield," Stylianou stated. Within an hour, a gram of RTTA-1 produced over 10,700 micromoles of hydrogen with a photon utilization rate of 10%.
"The remarkable activity of RTTA-1 is because of the synergistic effects of the metal oxides' properties and surface properties from the parent MOF that enhance electron transfer," Stylianou said. "This study highlights the potential of MOF-derived metal oxide heterojunctions as photocatalysts for practical hydrogen production, contributing to the development of sustainable and efficient energy solutions."
This method of hydrogen production is cleaner than the conventional process of methane-steam reforming, which emits carbon dioxide. Current catalytic processes require electricity, ideally sourced from renewable energy, to be cost-effective. Conventional hydrogen production costs about $1.50 per kilogram, whereas green hydrogen costs around $5 per kilogram.
"Water is an abundant source of hydrogen, and photocatalysis offers a method to harness the Earth's abundant solar energy for hydrogen production," Stylianou said. "Ruthenium oxide is not cheap but the amount used in our photocatalyst is minimal. For industrial applications, if a catalyst shows good stability and reproducibility, the cost of this small amount of ruthenium oxide becomes less important."
Funding for this research came from the College of Science, the Department of Chemistry, and donations from retired public school teachers and OSU alumni Brian and Marilyn Kleiner. The findings were published in Angewandte Chemie.
The project was led by graduate students Emmanuel Musa, Ankit Yadav, and Kyle Smith, and involved collaboration with Xiulei "David" Ji, professor of chemistry at OSU; Peter Eschbach, director of the Electron Microscopy Facility at Oregon State's Linus Pauling Science Center; postdoctoral researcher Min Soo Jung; and courtesy faculty member William Stickle.
Research Report:Boosting Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production by MOF-derived Metal Oxide Heterojunctions with a 10.0% Apparent Quantum Yield
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