South ​Korean team’s Breakthrough Boosts Green hydrogen Production

Updated June 21,‌ 2025
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A research team in South⁤ Korea has ⁤achieved ​a breakthrough in clean energy technology,⁢ developing a new electrocatalyst that promises to make green​ hydrogen production more efficient and affordable. The team, led by Professor Seunghyun Lee at Hanyang University ⁢ERICA campus, created a⁤ tunable‌ electrocatalyst using boron-doped cobalt phosphide nanosheets.

The ⁣world’s need for clean ‌and renewable energy sources is critical to combating climate change. Hydrogen, with its zero-carbon content and high energy‌ storage capacity, presents a promising solution. Electrochemical water-splitting, which uses electricity to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen, offers a lasting production​ method when paired with renewable energy.

Currently, large-scale hydrogen production​ via water-splitting is hampered by the high cost of rare earth metal catalysts. researchers are exploring more affordable alternatives,such as transition metal phosphides (TMPs). While TMPs show promise for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), they⁤ often struggle ⁢with oxygen evolution reaction (OER), reducing‌ overall efficiency.⁣ boron doping has been suggested as ⁣a way to improve both HER‌ and OER performance, but creating such materials has been challenging.

The South Korean team’s innovation overcomes ⁤this hurdle. “We have successfully developed cobalt phosphides-based nanomaterials by ​adjusting boron doping and phosphorus content using metal-organic frameworks,” Lee said.‍ Their findings appeared in the⁢ journal Small on March 19.

The team’s strategy involved using⁢ cobalt-based metal-organic ⁣frameworks‌ (MOFs). According to mr. Dun Chan Cha, ⁤a member of the research team, MOFs are excellent for synthesizing nanomaterials with specific compositions‌ and structures. The process began with growing Co-MOFs⁢ on nickel foam, followed⁤ by a post-synthesis modification reaction with sodium borohydride to integrate boron. A phosphorization ‌process then created three different samples ⁣of boron-doped cobalt phosphide⁤ nanosheets.

Experiments showed that all three samples‌ had ​a large ‍surface area and a mesoporous structure, enhancing electrocatalytic activity. The sample made‍ using 0.5 grams of sodium ⁢hypophosphite (B-CoP0.5@NC/NF) ⁣performed best, ‍exhibiting ‌overpotentials of 248 and⁣ 95 mV for⁢ OER and‌ HER, respectively. These figures are lower than those of ⁣previously reported electrocatalysts.

An alkaline electrolyzer‍ using the B-CoP0.5@NC/NF electrodes achieved a cell potential of 1.59 V ‌at a current‍ density of 10 mA cm-2, outperforming many recent electrolyzers. It also‌ surpassed the ⁤performance of state-of-the-art⁤ RuO2/NF(+) and⁢ 20% Pt-C/NF(−) electrolyzers ​at high current ‌densities, while maintaining stability for over 100 hours.

Density‍ functional theory calculations​ supported these results, confirming that boron doping and optimal phosphorus content facilitate effective interaction with reaction intermediates, leading to exceptional electrocatalytic ‍performance for green hydrogen production.

⁢ “Our findings offer ‍a blueprint for designing and synthesizing next-generation high-efficiency​ catalysts that can⁣ drastically reduce hydrogen production costs,” lee said.
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What’s next

Lee believes this research marks a significant step toward making large-scale green hydrogen production a reality,which will ultimately help reduce global carbon emissions and ​mitigate climate change.