Producing hydrogen from seawater

In her analysis on bone tissue engineering, Dr. Marta Cerruti has labored for years with graphene, a single sheet of carbon atoms with unbelievable properties—electrical conductivity and the flexibility to assist super weight. Now, her quest to enhance its qualities has opened the door to a doable resolution to one of many challenges of manufacturing hydrogen from seawater.

Cerruti, a professor of supplies engineering at McGill College, defined that whereas graphene is structurally sound, “one sheet of atoms isn’t one thing you’ll be able to simply work with.” In truth, piling the sheets up leads to, mainly, pencil lead.

Trying to find a method to make an easy-to-handle construction, Cerruti’s Ph.D. scholar Yiwen Chen mixed graphene with oxygen in a suspension with water to create diminished graphene oxide (GO), a porous, three-dimensional, electrically conductive scaffold. Cerruti prompt an extra modification, with GO flakes stacked on the pore partitions, “which allowed us to use one other fascinating property of GO—it creates a membrane that enables water by way of however no different molecules.”

When she canvassed her crew for strategies on how greatest to check the brand new scaffold, Gabriele Capilli, a post-doctoral fellow in her lab, prompt seawater electrolysis, a course of just like others he labored on whereas doing his Ph.D. It seems the brand new GO “selective scaffold” has the potential to enhance the method of manufacturing hydrogen from the ocean. The crew’s findings had been revealed not too long ago within the journal ACS Nano.

In standard electrolysis, chloride ions in seawater penetrate the electrode and work together with the catalyst, creating hypochlorite ions, an undesirable byproduct that toxins the catalyst, Cerruti defined. Utilizing X-ray part distinction imaging on the Canadian Gentle Supply on the College of Saskatchewan, Chen confirmed the GO scaffold had the best construction, with closed GO pores enclosing cobalt oxide nanoparticles because the catalyst. “We noticed what we needed to see.” Electrochemical exams carried out within the laboratory of collaborator Thomas Szkopek (electrical engineering, McGill) confirmed the scaffold labored as anticipated to dam undesirable ions.

“Individuals have tried numerous issues to maintain chloride out however no person thought of the concept that by utilizing GO, the electrode itself, its complete structure, might forestall the chloride oxidation that produces hypochlorites.”

The subsequent problem, she stated, might be scaling as much as mass produce the GO membrane. However when that’s solved, “there are many prospects. This might be used for different reactions the place you don’t need interference from sure molecules. It is going to all rely in your creativeness.”