Water Electrolysers based on heterojunction Catalyst Electrodes with Edge active site riched MoS2 and metal oxide composites

Objective

Anion exchange membrane water electrolysers (AEMWEs), with carriers including water, ammonia, etc., is an environmental friendliness technology for green hydrogen production. However, the slow reaction kinetics of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) still needs to be overcome, and the expensive, scarce and unstable catalyst materials, e.g., Pt, Ru, Ir noble metals, limit their extensive commercialisation. It is crucial to develop low-cost, highly catalytic active, and durable electrodes for AEMWEs with faster kinetics of HER. Therefore, WeCee intends to develop HER catalyst electrodes based on edge-defect MoS2 (MoS2-ED) heterojunction composites in-situ deposited on the surface of metal oxides (MOs) (MOs=TiO2, Co3O4, CeO2) for AEMWE applications. This research will use the resource rich and low-cost edge defect MoS2 as a carrier to construct a highly active and stable heterojunction composite with metal oxides (MOs) to reduce HER overpotential and improve catalytic efficiency in AEMWEs. Researcher Dr. Xu Tian will leverage her knowledge in materials science to collaborate with Prof. Shangfeng Du (supervisor) from the Centre for Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Research (CFCHR) at the University of Birmingham (UoB, host organisation). WeCee will provide a new strategy and technological innovation for the development of catalyst electrodes that are low-cost, highly active and durable for AEMWEs.