A Breakthrough in Clean Hydrogen Production

From fuel cells to industrial applications, hydrogen has great potential to be a clean energy carrier. Yet, producing hydrogen efficiently, cost-effectively, and sustainably has long been a challenge.[1]

Benefits of hydrogen (Image source: MBIE)

This could now change as researchers discovered a class of crystals that could revolutionise hydrogen production. Through the use of chiral crystals, the team has developed a more efficient method to split water—a critical process for generating clean hydrogen.[2]

Water splitting is a process that creates hydrogen by breaking down water molecules with electricity, heat, or light. When powered by renewable energy sources like solar or wind, it becomes a promising pathway for green hydrogen.[3] The process however is bottlenecked by the slow kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), which drives up production cost and makes large-scale applications less viable.[4]While traditional electrocatalysts can speed up OER, their use of expensive and scarce noble metals like platinum and iridium makes them less appealing.[5]

Green hydrogen production (Image source: Technetics)

The heart of this breakthrough lies in the quantum mechanical properties of the chiral crystals. The crystals are able to manipulate electron spin, enabling this new catalyst to transfer electrons more efficiently and outperform traditional materials by as much as 200 times.[6]

Illustration of the intrinsically chiral structure (Image source: Phys.org)

The impact of this discovery extends far beyond the laboratory. The ability to produce hydrogen more efficiently and affordably could accelerate the adoption of hydrogen as a clean energy source, reducing reliance on fossil fuels and contributing to global efforts to combat climate change.

While the initial results are highly encouraging, more work still needs to be done to develop an efficient and also sustainable catalyst; the current design still employs the use of a noble metal, specifically rhodium. To truly achieve a sustainable energy future, the entire lifecycle of hydrogen production—from catalyst fabrication to end-use—must be aligned with principles of environmental responsibility.[7]

The development of spin-powered chiral crystals marks a significant milestone in green hydrogen production. By overcoming the limitations of traditional catalysts, this innovative technology has the potential to make hydrogen a more accessible and sustainable resource.