He added that quick, inexpensive production is highly significant for commercialization.
Ren’s team of researchers and others have earlier reported a nickel-iron-(oxy)hydroxide compound as a catalyst to disintegrate seawater. However, generating the material demanded a long process at temperatures ranging between 300 °C and 600 °C, or as high as 1,100 °F.
Due to the high energy cost, it was not viable for commercial use, and the high temperatures deteriorated the mechanical and structural integrity of the nickel foam, which made long-term stability a concern, stated Ren, who is also an M.D. Anderson Professor of physics at UH.
To tackle both stability and cost, the team developed a process to make use of nickel-iron-(oxy) hydroxide on nickel foam that is doped with a small amount of sulfur to generate an effective catalyst at room temperature in just 5 minutes. Since the catalyst works at room temperature, both the cost is reduced and the mechanical stability is enhanced, noted the researchers.