cobalt phosphate catalyst in electrolysis

[btrautman]

Seems this nut has been cracked - so to speak...... MIT results.....

I plan on researching this and perform some tests.

Bob



A liquid catalyst was added to water before electrolysis to achieve what the researchers claim is almost 100-percent efficiency. When combined with photovoltaic cells to store energy chemically, the resulting solar energy systems could generate electricity around the clock, the MIT team said.

"The hard part of getting water to split is not the hydrogen -- platinum as a catalyst works fine for the hydrogen. But platinum works very poorly for oxygen, making you use much more energy," said MIT chemistry professor Daniel Nocera. "What we have done is made a catalyst work for the oxygen part without any extra energy. In fact, with our catalyst almost 100 percent of the current used for electrolysis goes into making oxygen and hydrogen."

Nickel oxide catalysts are currently used to boost the efficiency of electrolyzers, and they worked equally well in MIT's formulation, Nocera acknowledged. He added that the toxicity of nickel oxide forces the use of expensive, hermetically-sealed water containers. MIT's patented catalyst formulation is "green," Nocera said, and can be used in inexpensive open containers.

"Nickel oxide can't be used around anything else in the environment because of corrosion -- even the carbon dioxide in the air will react with it to make carbonates," said Nocera. "But our catalyst uses abundant materials that don't react with environment."

MIT's patented formulation of cobalt phosphate was dissolved in water. When the electrical current is passed through it to initiate electrolysis, the catalyst attached itself to the oxygen electrode to increase its efficiency. When the electrical current was turned off, the cobalt phosphate dissolved back into water.

[cepop]

Found this it may be of interest

Hydrogen Power on the Cheap--Or at Least, Cheaper
Chemists have devised less expensive methods for tapping the energy potential of this ubiquitous element
By Cynthia Graber



WATER REFINERY?: A new catalyst and polymer might prove key in delivering cost-effective--and plentiful--hydrogen from water.
MIT/NSF
The fuel of the future could be hydrogen—if it can be made cheaply enough. Currently, electrolyzers (machines that split water into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen) need a catalyst, namely platinum, to run; ditto fuel cells to recombine that hydrogen with oxygen, which produces electricity. The problem is that the precious metal costs about $1,700 to $2,000 per ounce, which means that hydrogen would be an uneconomical fuel source unless a less costly catalyst can be found. But researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) and Monash University in Australia report in Science today that they may have a cost-effective solution.

Chemist Daniel Nocera, head of the M.I.T.'s Solar Revolution Project, focused on one side of the equation: splitting water into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen molecules. This can be done well, but it remains difficult to actually separate the molecules. But Nocera and postdoctoral fellow Matthew Kanan discovered it could be accomplished by simply adding the metals cobalt and phosphate to water and running a current through it. In contrast to platinum, cobalt and phosphate cost roughly $2.25 an ounce and $.05 an ounce, respectively.

"We [have] figured out a way just using a glass of water at room temperature, under atmospheric pressure," Nocera says. "This thing [a thin film of cobalt and phosphate on an electrode] just churns away making [oxygen] from water."

Inspiration for the new catalyst came from nature; Nocera studied the chain of processes that take place during photosynthesis, such as how plants use the energy from sunlight to rearrange water's chemical bonds. In a future hydrogen economy, he imagines, a house would function much like a leaf does, using the sun to power household electricity and to break down water into fuel—a sort of artificial photosynthesis.

According to John Turner, a research fellow at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., who was not involved in the research, the discovery could reduce the need for platinum in a conventional electrolyzer. He believes it could also play a role in a future large-scale hydrogen generator, which would collect the energy from sunlight in huge fields and then run that electric current through water to produce vast amounts of hydrogen to meet, for example, the demand from a future fleet of hydrogen-powered vehicles. "That's what his advance is pointing towards," he says, "finding an alternative catalyst that will allow us to do oxygen evolution (breaking the bonds of water or H2O and forming oxygen) in concert with hydrogen" on a grand scale.

But that still leaves plenty of platinum in the other side of the equation: the fuel cells that combine hydrogen and oxygen back into water to harvest electricity. Chemist Bjorn Winther-Jensen of Monash University in Australia and his colleagues addressed that problem by developing new electrodes for fuel cells made from a special conducting polymer, that costs around $57 per counce.

During experiments, the polymer proved just as effective as platinum at harvesting electricity—and the work could prove immediately relevant in mini fuel cells, such as the kind that are being designed for computers.

In order for this to work on the grand scale of a fuel cell stack for a hydrogen vehicle or power plant "we need to develop a more three-dimensional structure to get thicker electrodes and a higher current per square centimeter," says Winther-Jensen. Regardless, by reducing or eliminating platinum, the two studies help pave the way for a future hydrogen economy.

Chas

[resident_genius]

i do not understand why this is not regarded with much more interest! are ya'll daft?

you all saw what happened when i used KOH and hydrogen peroxide, even neutral plates made the same amount of gas as the anode and cathode.

i, for one, and purchasing some cobalt phosphate.

[btrautman]

[resident_genius]

[Hydrogenworld]

[resident_genius]

[resident_genius]

[Hydrogenworld]

[kevinsatterfield]

[Hydrogenworld]

Water helps cobalt oxide to become a superconductor

[quote]Ever since high-temperature superconductivity was discovered in copper oxide or “cuprateâ€

[Hydrogenworld]

Good article

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/38674/113/

[gagekko]

Is this from the same MIT that stole Pantone's "Plasmatron" and has since been sitting on the patent?

Please forgive me if I don't become overly excited

[Hydrogenworld]

I have heard little aboute the "plasmatron", what is that and where can i read about it?

It seams that there is alot of "stealing" going around. First Dennis Klein (he´s an as and a bastard) and the way he speaks - "My gas" WTF? He´s gas .. whait a minut, it´s not he´s technic and it´s not he´s invention. Some people gets me realy mad, and now maby, just maby there are more shit going around ... fuck that.

The person who discover´s somthing should get the price for it, not someone who speaks whit he´s dick (excuse me). For some people it´s all about the money, they don´t give shit aboute enyone, just the money - i HATE that.´, i hate greed.
We could be on a sinking ship and they whould still take cash for letting you float.
So, this is one reasen why i dont tell everything in this forum, it´s that simple, and i hope this is not a case of rip-off.
Sorry if i defended someone!

[hypersoniq]

Remember to respect and research chemicals you have not worked with before.

Cobalt Oxide is carcinogenic and reacts violently with H2O2 and other strong oxidisers...


not sure which version of potassium phosphate they used...

Monopotassium phosphate (KH2PO4)
Dipotassium phosphate (K2HPO4)
Tripotassium phosphate (K3PO4)

but this is violently reactive with strong bases and oxidisers as well...

now that the safety part is out of the way, any idea on readily obtainable sources?