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.com
Volume 9
Journal of Nanomedicine & Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology Congress 2018
October 15-17, 2018
October 15-17, 2018 Dubai, UAE
21
st
World
Nanotechnology Congress
Earth-abundant nano-catalysts for clean hydrogen fuel generation through water splitting
Junyuan Xu and Lifeng Liu
International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, Portugal
H
ydrogen (H
2
) has been proposed to be a clean and carbon-neutral energy carrier that can be used as next-generation
fuel to fulfill both stationary and transportation needs. Compared to steam reforming, electro-catalytic water splitting
represents a greener and more sustainable way for H
2
generation and has been intensively investigated in recent years. The
Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER) has been a bottleneck to improve water splitting efficiency. It involves four concerted
proton-coupled electron transfer steps and is both thermodynamically and kinetically demanding. Without a catalyst, the OER
usually takes place at a high over-potential leading to a large energy loss. Compared to the OER, the H
2
Evolution Reaction
(HER) can be accomplished comparatively easily, but efficient electro-catalysts are still needed to reduce the over-potential
for HER and enable the reaction to take place at a practically high rate. Lately, earth-abundant transition metal based electro-
catalysts have been demonstrated to be highly active for both HER and OER and are proposed to be promising alternatives to
Platinum Group Metal (PGM) catalysts for use in water electrolysers. In this study, we showed our recent efforts to developing
efficient and durable transition metal based electrocatalysts, including transition metal phosphides obtained by wet chemical
reduction followed by post-phosphorization treatment and cobalt ultrafine clusters prepared by cluster beam deposition. We
have demonstrated that all these catalysts show electro-catalytic performance favorably compared to PGM based electro-
catalysts for HER or OER and therefore hold substantial promise for use as low-cost catalysts in water electrolysers.
Biography
Junyuan Xu has completed his PhD degree from University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB) in January 2014 with a thesis entitled “High performance
oxygen evolution reaction catalyst in acid for Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) water electrolysis”. During his PhD study, he has worked as a Scientific Visitor
at Technical University of Denmark (DTU) for one year. In March 2014, he became a Post-doctorate Fellow at the Catalysis and Materials Division (CMD) of the
Institute of Metal Research (IMR), Chinese Academy of Sciences, under the supervision of Professor Dangsheng Su, where his research focused on electro-
catalytic mechanisms of carbon dioxide conversion using heteroatom doped nanocarbon electro-catalysts. He has joined Dr. Lifeng Liu’s group at the International
Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL) and is currently working as a Research Fellow on a Horizon 2020 project (CritCat) focusing on developing non-precious
earth-abundant electro-catalysts for hydrogen/oxygen evolution reactions.
junyuan.xu@inl.intJunyuan Xu et al., J Nanomed Nanotechnol 2018, Volume 9
DOI: 10.4172/2157-7439-C9-091