Synthesis of a catalyst for water splitting

Abstract

At present, most of the worlds energy supply comes from fossil and nuclear energy. However, in view of the depletion of fossil fuels in the near future and environmental concerns for nuclear energy, alternative clean energy sources which has a tolerable environmental impact are being heavily researched and developed. Currently, hydrogen energy remains to be one of the most promising sources of energy as it is the most abundant element in the universe and also due to the technical advancement in fuel cells in recent years. However the current source of hydrogen gas are still mainly from fossil fuel as the cost of extracting hydrogen gas through electrolysis of water is still high due to the high cost of electricity. Hence there is a need to develop a low cost catalyst which could reduce significant amount of electrical energy needed for the electrolysis process.

This focus of this project is to synthesize and test a molybdenum sulfide compound, which is known to be an effective yet inexpensive catalyst for hydrogen generation from water splitting.

The molybdenum sulfide compound is synthesized and tested. The catalyst testing results have shown that this compound is an effective catalyst for water splitting as it reduces significantly the minimum potential for the electrolysis process to start. Moreover the catalyst is tested to be stable and durable, as the performance remains fairly consistent after many electrolysis cycles and prolong hours of electrolysis.

However the catalyst is tested to be effective only on electrolyte with a low pH value. Further research has to be done to gradually improve the performance of the catalyst in electrolyte of higher pH and eventually able to perform well in a neutral pH electrolyte such as water or sea water.