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Molybdenite Greening the Economy

It is reported  that PhD student Mark Lukowski and associate professor Song Jin of the University of Wisconsin-Madison have introduced a new catalyst structure that is able to “facilitate the use of electricity to produce hydrogen gas10 from water,” 

A process is considered important due to hydrogen’s status as “the ultimate non-carbon, non-polluting fuel for storing intermittent energy11 from the wind or sun.”

Platinum is normally required to create the hydrogen-producing reaction, but the researchers have come up with a way to avoid using it by depositing “nanostructures of molybdenum disulfide on a disk of graphite” and then applying a lithium14 treatment.

Nanowerk notes that when the material is grown on graphite it is a semiconductor, but becomes metallic after being treated with lithium. In this second stage, it has increased catalytic properties.

Jin told Nanowerk that while the new catalyst is still not as efficient at producing hydrogen as platinum is, he believes it is valuable because it is important to begin shifting toward the use of “common elements” that are not as rare and expensive as platinum.

He and Lukowski have received support from the US Department of Energy’s Basic Energy Sciences program and hope to continue to improve the process.Again, the researchers have not indicated when the procedure may become more mainstream.
 

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