- 건국대학교

	Prof. Hyucksoo Han’s Team Develops a Technology that Generates Eco-friendly Hydrogen
	관리자		389		2021.12.31

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A joint research team of Prof. Hyucksoo Han’s team (Department of Energy Engineering) from Konkuk University’s Konkuk Institute of Science and Technology (KIT) and Kangmin Kim’s team from Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) announced on the 27th that they have developed a core technology that can generate hydrogen with seawater as fuel. The joint research team developed cathode catalyst that can produce hydrogen through water electrolysis, a key technology in green hydrogen production. Water electrolysis is a technology that decomposes water into hydrogen and oxygen gas by inducing chemical reactions such as oxidation and reduction in water through electrical energy. One of the most commercialized water electrolysis technologies is KOH or ‘alkaline electrolysis’ in which water is electrolyzed in alkaline environment by using an aqueous sodium oxide (NaOH) solution as an electrolyte. This technology, however, always had difficulty improving the efficiency of energy transition due to the overvoltage in the anodic reaction. Coated on the electrode surface, nickel-based catalysts are generally used to lower the voltage, but these catalysts caused catalyst particles to be detached due to degradation resulting in a high overvoltage. The catalyst material developed by the research team does not require the usage of organic binder and additional coating process as it grows a nickel-based catalyst directly on the surface of the base material electrode. The material not only shows great durability but ensures high activity for its strong electrical interaction between electrodes and catalyst materials compared to the existing powder-type catalyst materials. The research team has implemented the optimal transition metal quaternary (Ni-Fe-Al-Co) composition that can have the best hydrogen-generated anode reaction activity through metal-organic framework material and electrochemical activity. Through experiments and theoretical verification, they have also identified that iron atoms (Fe), which are easily changed in electrical characteristics, act as major active elements in the anode reaction. Prof. Han said, “The catalyst materials showed outstanding activity and durability in alkaline electrolytes as well as electrolytes that contain sodium chloride, which is similar to seawater,” adding, “These can be used as cathode catalyst materials for seawater electrolysis that can generate hydrogen by using seawater as fuel without using fresh water.”
 
The research result was published as a back over in Journal of Materials Chemistry A, a renowned journal, on December 28th. 
 
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