Due to the intermittency of renewable electricity, conversion to chemical fuel is a necessity for the success of the transition to sustainable energy. A simple and attractive candidate for climate-neutral fuel is hydrogen, which can be produced directly through water splitting (so-called electrolysis). But substantial market penetration by commercial electrolysers (devices that perform water splitting using electricity) has not been achieved because it is not economically attractive yet. The reason for this lies in the need of expensive catalysts, which are necessary for the reaction. Today's catalysts are not stable enough, not efficient enough, and often used expensive and rare elements. To develop and exploit earth-abundant highly active catalyst materials, a detailed understanding of the underlying relationships between catalytic activity and atomic-level surface structure is required.
Therefore, we investigate Ni-Fe-based perovskite thin film catalysts that can be create with atomic precision to achieve the following objectives:
- Revalidate or replace activity trends found for less well-defined surfaces
- Derive an atomistic understanding of the catalysis reaction and degradation mechanisms
- Deduce design rules for beyond-state-of-the-art electrocatalyst materials and communicate them to the catalyst research and production communities for exploitation in “real-world” catalyst materials
The results of SEARCh will thus contribute to the goals of development and deployment of low-carbon technologies in line with the EU’s Strategic Energy Technology Plan.
