Catalytic Hydrogen Production, Storage and Application

A special issue of Catalysts (ISSN 2073-4344). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Catalysis".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 September 2022) | Viewed by 17101

Special Issue Editor

Fukushima Renewable Energy Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Koriyama, Japan
Interests: catalysis; green chemistry; energy chemistry; environmental chemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The potential use of hydrogen as a clean and renewable fuel has gained significant attention in recent years. Hydrogen is a promising clean energy carrier that can be produced from fossil fuels such as natural gas or coal. It can also be produced from renewables, including biomass, water splitting using renewable energy from wind, solar, geothermal, or hydroelectric sources. Future research needs to develop low-cost, highly efficient catalytic hydrogen production from renewable sources. For this purpose, an improvement in the catalysts’ efficiency for hydrogen production is highly required. Hydrogen is a clean energy source that can replace fossil fuels, whereas its transportation and storage are complicated and expensive, which restrict its practical applications, especially at large scale. To overcome these shortcomings, hydrogen carriers/storage materials, such as ammonia, organic hydrides, metal hydrides, and hydrocarbons have been developed. To ensure a sustainable hydrogen society, it is highly required to develop novel catalytic processes to ensure efficient synthesis and application of hydrogen carriers. Among various hydrogen applications, fuel cells are considered as the main field of utilization of hydrogen as an energy source. New developments in this field aim at lowering costs and improving the performance and durability of the catalytic procedures.

Research articles involving the fabrication of novel and efficient catalysts for the development of sustainable hydrogen production, storage as materials or carriers, and its utilization as an energy resource are highly encouraged.

Dr. Rahat Javaid
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • biomass
  • hydrocarbons
  • electrocatalysis or water splitting
  • photocatalysis
  • hydrogen storage
  • hydrogen carriers
  • fuel cells

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Editorial

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2 pages, 166 KiB  
Editorial
Catalytic Hydrogen Production, Storage and Application
by Rahat Javaid
Catalysts 2021, 11(7), 836; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal11070836 - 10 Jul 2021
Cited by 27 | Viewed by 3274
Abstract
Hydrogen is a clean fuel for transportation and energy storage [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Catalytic Hydrogen Production, Storage and Application)

Research

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12 pages, 6612 KiB  
Article
Surface Modification towards Integral Bulk Catalysts of Transition Metal Borides for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction
by Wei Zhao, Dan Xu, Yanli Chen, Jiaen Cheng, Cun You, Xin Wang, Shushan Dong, Qiang Tao and Pinwen Zhu
Catalysts 2022, 12(2), 222; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal12020222 - 16 Feb 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2358
Abstract
Transition metal borides (TMBs) are promising catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). While the commercially available TMBs indicate poor HER performance due to powder electrode and low activity sites density, optimizing commercial TMBs for better HER performance is urgent. To break through the [...] Read more.
Transition metal borides (TMBs) are promising catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). While the commercially available TMBs indicate poor HER performance due to powder electrode and low activity sites density, optimizing commercial TMBs for better HER performance is urgent. To break through the challenge, a new strategy is proposed to compose integral bulk electrodes with needle surfaces in TMBs. The integral bulk electrodes in TiB2, ZrB2, and HfB2 are formed under high pressure and high temperature (HPHT), and the nanoneedle morphology is constructed by chemical etching. In the three materials, the smallest overpotential is 346 mV at 10 mA cm2 in the HCl etched bulk TiB2 electrode, which is about 61.9% higher than commercial TiB2 powder. Better performance arises from better conductivity of the integral bulk electrode, and the nano morphology exposes the edge sides of the structure which have high activity site density. This work is significant for developing new kinds of bulk TMBs catalysts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Catalytic Hydrogen Production, Storage and Application)
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49 pages, 13210 KiB  
Article
Poisoning Effect of CO: How It Changes Hydrogen Electrode Reaction and How to Analyze It Using Differential Polarization Curve
by Osami Seri and Kazunao Furumata
Catalysts 2021, 11(11), 1322; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal11111322 - 30 Oct 2021
Viewed by 1336
Abstract
The hydrogen electrode reaction (HER) on Pt electrode in a H2SO4 solution when CO gas was injected/stopped was studied using polarization resistance curve. In order to elucidate and confirm the CO poisoning effect, a few curve techniques were [...] Read more.
The hydrogen electrode reaction (HER) on Pt electrode in a H2SO4 solution when CO gas was injected/stopped was studied using polarization resistance curve. In order to elucidate and confirm the CO poisoning effect, a few curve techniques were proposed. Applying them, the kinetic parameters such as the number of electrons transferred (z) and the cathodic transfer coefficient (αc) were determined. The HER in a 0.5 mol dm−3 H2SO4 solution saturated with H2 was confirmed as a reversible reaction having z = 2. When the above solution was injected with CO, the reversible HER changed to an irreversible reaction having z = 1 and αc ≈ 0.6. Once we stopped the CO injection, alteration from the irreversible to quasireversible reaction was gradually made after several cyclic polarizations. The proposed curve techniques can provide a reliable way to determine the kinetic parameters changing among reversible, irreversible, and quasireversible reactions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Catalytic Hydrogen Production, Storage and Application)
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18 pages, 3016 KiB  
Article
Synthesis of Novel Heteroleptic Oxothiolate Ni(II) Complexes and Evaluation of Their Catalytic Activity for Hydrogen Evolution
by Fotios Kamatsos, Kostas Bethanis and Christiana A. Mitsopoulou
Catalysts 2021, 11(3), 401; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal11030401 - 22 Mar 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2982
Abstract
Two heteroleptic nickel oxothiolate complexes, namely [Ni(bpy)(mp)] (1) and [Ni(dmbpy)(mp)] (2), where mp = 2-hydroxythiophenol, bpy = 2,2′-bipyridine and dmbpy = 4,4′-dimethyl-2,2′-bipyridine were synthesized and characterized with various physical and spectroscopic methods. Complex 2 was further characterized by single [...] Read more.
Two heteroleptic nickel oxothiolate complexes, namely [Ni(bpy)(mp)] (1) and [Ni(dmbpy)(mp)] (2), where mp = 2-hydroxythiophenol, bpy = 2,2′-bipyridine and dmbpy = 4,4′-dimethyl-2,2′-bipyridine were synthesized and characterized with various physical and spectroscopic methods. Complex 2 was further characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction data. The complex crystallizes in the monoclinic P 21/c system and in its neutral form. The catalytic properties of both complexes for proton reduction were evaluated with photochemical and electrochemical studies. Two different in their nature photosensitizers, namely fluorescein and CdTe-TGA-coated quantum dots, were tested under various conditions. The role of the electron donating character of the methyl substituents was revealed in the light of the studies. Thus, catalyst 2 performs better than 1, reaching 39.1 TONs vs. 4.63 TONs in 3 h, respectively, in electrochemical experiments. In contrast, complex 1 is more photocatalytically active than 2, achieving a TON of over 6700 in 120 h of irradiation. This observed reverse catalytic activity suggests that HER mechanism follows different pathways in electrocatalysis and photocatalysis. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Catalytic Hydrogen Production, Storage and Application)
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Review

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21 pages, 3812 KiB  
Review
Earth-Abundant Electrocatalysts for Water Splitting: Current and Future Directions
by Sami M. Ibn Shamsah
Catalysts 2021, 11(4), 429; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal11040429 - 27 Mar 2021
Cited by 26 | Viewed by 6038
Abstract
Of all the available resources given to mankind, the sunlight is perhaps the most abundant renewable energy resource, providing more than enough energy on earth to satisfy all the needs of humanity for several hundred years. Therefore, it is transient and sporadic that [...] Read more.
Of all the available resources given to mankind, the sunlight is perhaps the most abundant renewable energy resource, providing more than enough energy on earth to satisfy all the needs of humanity for several hundred years. Therefore, it is transient and sporadic that poses issues with how the energy can be harvested and processed when the sun does not shine. Scientists assume that electro/photoelectrochemical devices used for water splitting into hydrogen and oxygen may have one solution to solve this hindrance. Water electrolysis-generated hydrogen is an optimal energy carrier to store these forms of energy on scalable levels because the energy density is high, and no air pollution or toxic gas is released into the environment after combustion. However, in order to adopt these devices for readily use, they have to be low-cost for manufacturing and operation. It is thus crucial to develop electrocatalysts for water splitting based on low-cost and land-rich elements. In this review, I will summarize current advances in the synthesis of low-cost earth-abundant electrocatalysts for overall water splitting, with a particular focus on how to be linked with photoelectrocatalytic water splitting devices. The major obstacles that persist in designing these devices. The potential future developments in the production of efficient electrocatalysts for water electrolysis are also described. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Catalytic Hydrogen Production, Storage and Application)
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