A research team at NIMS has leveraged an artificial intelligence (AI) technique to revolutionize the production of green hydrogen.
The team successfully identified high-performance water electrolyzer electrode materials without the need for platinum-group elements, a significant advancement in the realm of water electrolysis. This breakthrough aims to drive down production costs and pave the way for large-scale manufacturing of green hydrogen, a promising next-gen energy source. The findings of this research have been documented in the prestigious publication ACS Central Science.
Generating green hydrogen through water electrolysis stands as a pivotal strategy in achieving carbon neutrality. However, the conventional water electrolyzers heavily rely on pricey and rare platinum-group elements to expedite the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), crucial for hydrogen production. To combat this dependency on expensive materials, scientists have been striving to develop platinum-group-free electrocatalysts comprising more abundant elements suitable for efficient green hydrogen production. Nevertheless, the task of pinpointing the ideal chemical compositions from an infinite pool of possibilities has been dauntingly resource-intensive, time-consuming, and laborious.
The research team at NIMS has recently unveiled an AI technique capable of swiftly identifying materials with desired traits by adjusting prediction models based on dataset sizes—a game-changer in materials discovery. Through this AI-driven methodology, the team efficiently pinpointed novel OER electrocatalytic materials from a pool of roughly 3,000 candidates within a mere month. In stark contrast, assessing these 3,000 materials manually was estimated to span nearly six years.
The newfound electrocatalytic materials can be synthesized using cost-effective and abundantly available metallic elements such as manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), nickel (Ni), zinc (Zn), and silver (Ag). Experimental assessments have revealed that under specific conditions, these materials exhibit superior electrochemical properties compared to ruthenium (Ru) oxides—the current pinnacle in OER activity among electrocatalytic materials.
Despite silver’s relatively lower abundance in the Earth’s crust compared to other elements in the newly discovered materials, its availability still surpasses that of ruthenium by almost 100-fold. This indicates that the developed electrocatalytic materials can be feasibly synthesized in significant quantities to enable mass hydrogen production via water electrolyzers.
The success of this AI-driven approach underscores its potential in accelerating material discovery processes and surpassing human cognitive limits. Harnessing this technique, the NIMS team aims to fast-track the development of new materials, particularly water electrolyzer electrode materials, to enhance the efficiency of various electrochemical devices crucial for achieving carbon neutrality.
This pioneering project was spearheaded by a proficient NIMS research team led by Ken Sakaushi and Ryo Tamura, showcasing their expertise in merging AI advancements with materials science.
