Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) Professor Dohwan Kim's research team (College of Education, Department of Science Education; Graduate School, Department of Energy StorageㆍConversion Engineering) has developed a high-performance catalyst capable of producing hydrogen efficiently and at low cost, attracting international attention.

Professor Dohwan Kim of JBNU, PhD candidate Dao Thi Huyen, and PhD candidate Salim Sitra announced on the 19th that they had developed a water-splitting catalyst with a layered hydroxide (LDH) structure formed by stacking nickel–iron nanosheets (def-Ru-NiFe LDH/NiCo2O4).

This provides a way to dramatically reduce the cost of expensive commercial catalysts that typically use precious metals (platinum, iridium, ruthenium, etc.).

The results of this research, whose excellence has been proven, were published in the latest issue of one of the world's leading materials journals, Chemical Engineering Journal (IF=15.1), under the title 'Dual efficiency enhancement in overall water splitting with defect-rich and Ru atom-doped NiFe LDH nanosheets on NiCo2O4 nanowires'.

The technology developed to realize eco-friendly green hydrogen involves synthesizing a layered hydroxide (LDH) structure by bonding nickel–iron nanosheets onto nickel–cobalt (NiCo2O4) nanowires with a small amount of ruthenium doping. It presents a method to manufacture the high-activity water-splitting catalyst (def-Ru-NiFe LDH/NiCo2O4) at less than half the cost of currently commercialized catalysts.

They also analyzed changes in charge density through computational modeling and elucidated the electrode surface reaction mechanisms during the water electrolysis process at the atomic level.

The manufactured water-splitting catalyst (def-Ru-NiFe LDH/NiCo2O4) exhibited a lower cell voltage of 1.58 V (@ 10 mA cm-2) compared with the widely used commercial catalyst IrO2∥Pt/C (~1.61 V @ 10 mA cm-2). In terms of durability, it maintained its initial performance even after 60 hours of operation, suggesting its potential for commercialization.

The development of this green hydrogen production technology is expected to make a significant contribution to realizing the country's hydrogen economy. The research also once again demonstrated that JBNU is conducting world-leading research in the field of green hydrogen production.

Professor Dohwan Kim said, "This study is significant in that we have established core source technology that can produce highly active green hydrogen at low cost, a key technology that must be resolved for the future hydrogen economy," and added, "By developing a high-performance catalyst capable of producing green hydrogen efficiently and inexpensively, we will make a major contribution to achieving carbon neutrality, and we will strive for commercialization so that it can be applied in industry as soon as possible."

Meanwhile, this research was carried out with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT's Regional Leading Research Center (RLRC) program and from the Ministry of Education through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) basic research program and the BK21 FOUR project.