French researchers have presented a study that enable to produce and use hydrogen by replacing platinum by a synthetic enzyme. This method should open a new era for the profitability of fuel cells by enabling the production of hydrogen from nickel, iron or cobalt, less expensive and rare than platinum.
Thus, scientists from Laboratoire de chimie et de biologie des métaux (LCBM) from Grenoble and from Institut du rayonnement de la matière de Saclay (IRAMIS) got inspired from hydrogenases, which are natural enzymes present notably in bacteria and using or producing hydrogen from nickel or iron. They originate from an era during which there was no oxygen on earth but carbon monoxide or hydrogen, and, as they are destructed by oxygen, are present in specific environments where hydrogen is profuse.
“Nature got along to produce hydrogen without platinum, that has inspired us” said Marc Fontecave from LCBM. This biomimetics approach came from the observation that some cyanobacteria can transform water to hydrogen thanks to solar energy. Thus, there are some hydrogenases realizing catalysis appealing to iron or nickel atoms. Researchers have put these “imitations” on carbon nanotubes which allows transplanting a lot of catalysts by unit areas on the electrode.
These promising results still have to be improved either by increasing the quantity of the catalyst on the electrode or by enhancing its chemistry as its speed is 10 to 100 times weaker than with plate and as there’s no real substitute to plate. “We have 10 or 20 working years in front of us” considered Vincent Artero, researcher in LCBM and coauthor of the study.
Michael Hamburger (Appalachian State University) et Thomas Moore (Arizona State University) have positively reacted to this announcement considering that “future optimizations of this compound could lead to viable catalyst, without noble metal, for fuel cell”.