The Lemon Fool

UNSW Sydney chemists have invented a new, cheap catalyst for splitting water with an electrical current to efficiently produce clean hydrogen fuel.
The technology is based on the creation of ultrathin slices of porous metal-organic complex materials coated onto a foam electrode, which the researchers have unexpectedly shown is highly conductive of electricity and active for splitting water.
"Splitting water usually requires two different catalysts, but our catalyst can drive both of the reactions required to separate water into its two constituents, oxygen and hydrogen," says study leader Associate Professor Chuan Zhao.
"Our fabrication method is simple and universal, so we can adapt it to produce ultrathin nanosheet arrays of a variety of these materials, called metal-organic frameworks.
"Compared to other water-splitting electro-catalysts reported to date, our catalyst is also among the most efficient," he says.

tjh290633 wrote:I wasn't aware that electrolysis of water required a catalyst.

XFool wrote:

tjh290633 wrote:I wasn't aware that electrolysis of water required a catalyst.

It doesn't "require" it. But it very much helps!

tjh290633 wrote:

XFool wrote:

tjh290633 wrote:I wasn't aware that electrolysis of water required a catalyst.

It doesn't "require" it. But it very much helps!

Sounds to me that the porous electrode has much more surface area, so can release more gas. I still don't think that you can get more gas than the electrical current can release.

Reported working efficiencies were for alkaline in 1996 lying in the 50–60% range for the smaller electrolysers and around 65–70% for the larger plants.[22] Theorical efficiency for PEM electrolysers are predicted up to 94%.[23] Ranges in 2014 were 43–67% for the alkaline and 40–67% for the PEM, they should progress in 2030 to 53–70% for the alkaline and 62–74% for the PEM.[20]

XFool wrote:Like most things catalytic, I expect it is more a matter of rate of reaction than getting "more gas than the electrical current can release".

For instance, if you put a little H2SO4 into distilled water it will electrolyse MUCH faster than pure water ever would. But you still get just Hydrogen and Oxygen at the electrodes, AFAIK.