Developing catalysts for green hydrogen production from low-grade water electrolysis

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The direct use of low-grade water to produce green hydrogen eliminates the use of water purification technologies required forcurrent electrolysers, and thus widens the global reach of green hydrogen technologies. However, the long-standing challengeof using low-grade water is the deleterious effect of ions and contaminants in it on the stability, activity and selectivity ofcatalysts. The poor performance of catalysts in these environments has a direct impact on the device efficiency and lifetime. Inorder to design more flexible and resilient water electrolysis systems, we need to develop a fundamental understanding of howcatalyst materials perform in harsh operating environments and use this information to rationally design new catalysts.Through this project, we will elucidate the key factors controlling stability and activity of catalysts for low-grade waterelectrolysis. The project will involve (a) catalyst synthesis and characterization (b) benchmarking of electrochemicalperformance (c) operando optical and X-ray spectroscopy to understand how the catalyst structure and surface intermediatesevolve with potential and time of operation and (d) post-cycling characterization using a suite of surface characterization toolsavailable at the Department of Materials to detect changes in the surface properties.