STTR Phase I: Dual-pH Water Splitting Device Comprising Earth-Abundant Electrocatalysts

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目将评估使用新的非贵金属催化剂通过分解水生产氢的商业可行性。与现有的系统相比，使用这些新型催化剂制成的电解槽具有更高的效率和更低的资本成本的潜力。如今，氢的市场规模为每年1150亿美元。目前，氢气主要是通过甲烷的蒸汽重整生产的。通过蒸汽重整制氢每年向大气中排放数百万吨二氧化碳。人们普遍认为，如果能够实现成本降低，水电解可以在未来的制氢中发挥重要作用。此外，氢具有储存太阳能和风能等可再生能源系统产生的能量并按需供应的潜力。这些新型电解槽最初的市场切入点是为用于物料搬运的燃料电池驱动叉车提供氢气。美国国家可再生能源实验室（NREL）的一项生命周期成本分析表明，氢燃料电池叉车的总生命周期成本比使用铅酸电池的叉车便宜10%。该项目的智力优势在于，地球上储量丰富的新型非贵金属催化剂能够用于析氢反应（HER）和析氧反应（OER），从而大大降低成本，同时提高水分解效率。HER电催化剂由超薄FeS2纳米片组成，OER电催化剂由纳米非晶Ni0.8:Fe0.2氧化物组成。催化剂的优选工作pH是不同的（超薄FeS2纳米片的pH为7，纳米非晶Ni0.8:Fe0.2氧化物的pH为14）。初步数据表明，这两种具有双ph膜的催化剂可以有效地分离水，总过电位仅为300 mV（双电极配置时为1.53 V）。这比目前商用电解槽中使用的最著名的贵金属催化剂Pt和IrOx低50 mV以上。该项目将继续在双ph电解槽堆中优化这些催化剂，并确定其稳定性和寿命是否符合商业要求。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will assess the commercial viability of using new non-precious metal catalysts to produce hydrogen by splitting water. Electrolyzers made with these new catalysts have the potential to deliver higher efficiencies and lower capital costs than currently available systems. The market for hydrogen today is $115 billion per year. Currently, hydrogen is primarily produced via steam reformation of methane. Hydrogen production via steam reformation emits millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere annually. There is broad agreement that water electrolysis can play a significant role in future hydrogen production if cost reductions can be realized. In addition, hydrogen has the potential to store energy produced by renewable energy systems like solar and wind and make it available on demand. The initial market entry point for these new electrolyzers is to supply hydrogen for fuel cell powered forklifts used in material handling. A life cycle cost analysis by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has shown that the total life cycle costs of hydrogen fuel cell forklifts are 10% cheaper than those using lead acid batteries. The intellectual merit of this project is focused on the ability of new earth-abundant non-precious metal catalysts for both the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) to dramatically lower costs while improving efficiency in water splitting. The HER electrocatalyst is composed of hyper-thin FeS2 nano-discs and the OER electrocatalyst is nanoamorphous Ni0.8:Fe0.2 oxide. The preferred operating pH for the catalysts are different (pH 7 for the hyper-thin FeS2 nano-discs and pH 14 for the nanoamorphous Ni0.8:Fe0.2 oxide). Preliminary data shows that these two catalysts with the dual-pH membrane can effectively split water with a total overpotential of only 300 mV (1.53 V in a two electrode configuration). This is more than 50 mV lower than the best-known precious metal catalysts, Pt and IrOx, used in current commercial electrolyzers. The project will continue the optimization of these catalysts in the dual-pH electrolyzer stack and also determine if stability and lifetime meet commercial requirementsThis award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.