A collaborative research team composed of scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Washington State University (WSU), with input from Pajarito Powder and Sandia National Laboratories, developed a nickel-iron based catalyst for alkaline conditions, which does not require costly precious-metals.

More information can be found, here.

Yuehe Lin, professor at WSU’s School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, lead the team that created the precious-metal-free catalyst based on Ni and Fe. Their team shared developments with Yu Seung Kim, a research scientist at LANL and coauthor of the paper.

The resulting catalyst achieved an order of magnitude increase in hydrogen production, compared to prior generations of Anion Exchange Membrane (AEM) electrolyzers, comparable to more costly Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyzers.

The project was supported by the HydroGEN Advanced Water Splitting Materials Consortium.