Technology for manufacturing hydrogen-generating catalysts using pulsed lasers
Production costs are expected to be reduced by 50% compared to existing chemical processes.


Amidst the growing demand for hydrogen across industries, particularly in semiconductor microfabrication, a technology for manufacturing low-cost, high-efficiency hydrogen-generating catalysts has been developed by domestic researchers.

On the 6th, the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) and Konkuk University developed a fundamental technology for manufacturing a hydrogen-generating catalyst using an eco-friendly physical process utilizing a pulsed laser. This method creates the catalyst by directing a pulsed laser onto the surface of carbon nanotubes to add a heterogeneous element other than carbon in a single-atom form, without the need for environmentally harmful chemical processes.

Hydrogen-generating catalysts are crucial to the efficiency and cost of hydrogen production in water electrolysis systems, which produce hydrogen through electrolysis. Current water electrolysis systems rely on precious metal catalysts like platinum (Pt) and ruthenium (Ru), leading to high costs and challenges in commercialization.

As an alternative, a new technology that improves water electrolysis properties by adding heterogeneous elements such as cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), and iron (Fe), which have excellent hydrogen-generating catalytic properties, in the form of single atoms to carbon materials with excellent electrical conductivity is attracting attention recently. However, in order to manufacture a catalyst with a single atom added, secondary heat treatment and chemical processes are inevitably involved, which takes a long time to process and there are many difficulties in manufacturing a high-concentration catalyst.

A joint research team led by Dr. Kangmin Kim of the Functional Materials and Components Research Group at the Korea Institute of Energy Research and Professor Hyuksoo Han of the Department of Future Energy Engineering at Konkuk University has developed the mechanism for producing graphene quantum dots from carbon nanotubes using pulsed lasers, which they discovered last September, and applied it to the manufacture of hydrogen-generating catalysts. The pulsed laser process is a physical process that requires no chemical additives, making it an environmentally friendly way to produce nanomaterials. Its fast reaction speed also contributes to shortened process times.

The research team succeeded in producing a high-concentration Co, phosphorus (P) single-atom catalyst by utilizing the phenomenon in which single atoms evenly penetrate the entire surface of a carbon nanotube during the instantaneous formation and disappearance of high temperature and high pressure when a pulse laser is irradiated on the carbon nanotube.

Actual experimental results demonstrated that the developed catalyst achieved a doping density approximately 5.5 times higher than that of single-atom catalysts manufactured through chemical processes, and its hydrogen production efficiency improved by approximately 7% compared to precious metal catalysts. If commercialized, the process time is expected to be shortened by approximately 80% compared to existing chemical processes, and catalyst production costs are expected to be reduced by more than 50%.

Meanwhile, the results of this study were published in the online version of 'ACS Nano', an international journal in the field of nanomaterials, in March. Additionally, this research will be conducted for two years from September 2020 to February 2022 with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea's Individual Basic Research Project for Mid-career Researchers.