How did scientists slash green hydrogen costs overnight?

Scientists at Northwestern University have made a major leap in reducing the cost of green hydrogen, a clean fuel vital to renewable energy goals. They discovered a new catalyst that rivals the expensive iridium, slashing material costs by about 16 times.

By using an innovative nanomaterial screening tool called the megalibrary, the research team rapidly identified a four-metal combination that not only matches but exceeds iridium’s catalytic performance for water splitting.

What is the new catalyst, and how was it discovered?

The team harnessed the megalibrary, a chip containing millions of unique nanoparticles, to screen 156 million different catalyst candidates in just one afternoon. This approach replaced traditional slow trial-and-error methods.

Their top-performing catalyst contains ruthenium, cobalt, manganese, and chromium in a precise oxide form (Ru52Co33Mn9Cr6). This combination performed better than iridium in tests for oxygen evolution under harsh acidic conditions and proved stable over 1,000 operational hours.

Did you know?
Iridium is one of the rarest elements on Earth and primarily sourced as a byproduct of platinum mining and meteoric deposits.

Why does this breakthrough matter for renewable energy?

Iridium, the current gold standard catalyst for green hydrogen production, is rare and costly at about $5,000 per ounce, limiting the scalability of clean hydrogen infrastructure.

The new catalyst costs roughly one-sixteenth of iridium’s price while delivering equivalent or better efficiency.

This breakthrough could unlock broad adoption of hydrogen as a fuel, accelerating decarbonization efforts across sectors such as transportation, industry, and power generation.

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Nanotechnology accelerates materials discovery

Led by Chad Mirkin and Ted Sargent, the researchers leveraged nanotechnology to create a "data factory" that automates and massively parallelizes catalyst discovery. Instead of one experiment at a time, millions of tiny experiments happen simultaneously on a single chip.

Partnering with Toyota Research Institute, the team systematically tested combinations of abundant, inexpensive metals to replace iridium in the oxygen evolution reaction vital for water splitting.

Iridium alternatives transform hydrogen costs

Iridium’s scarcity due to its meteoric origins and limited mining as a platinum byproduct creates supply bottlenecks for green hydrogen. The new catalyst’s abundant metals offer a scalable, cost-effective path forward.

Joseph Montoya from Toyota emphasized the importance of scaling these discoveries beyond the lab to practical applications. The megalibrary approach itself promises to reshape material science beyond catalysts into fields like batteries and biomedical devices.

This discovery marks a pivotal moment in making green hydrogen affordable and widely accessible, promising a cleaner energy future at significantly reduced cost.