Hydrogen has been utilized as clean energy source in numerous areas including hydrogen cars and nickel-hydride batteries. The steam-methane reforming reaction whereby methane from natural gas is used to produce hydrogen in thermal processes is responsible for as much as 90% of hydrogen production around the globe. However, such a reaction has a major drawback: heavy carbon dioxide emission. As a countermeasure, a two-step thermodynamic water dissociation was spotlighted only to be labeled inefficacy because of a high reaction temperature of 1400℃.

Assistant professor Jin Hyun-gyu from ME along with Professor Arun Majumdar, Professor William Cheuh and their respective teams from the Departments of ME and MSE at Stanford University have discovered Poly-cation oxide (PCO) that significantly lowers the reaction temperature of the water dissociation. The team observed entropy’s influence on the reaction temperature of water dissociation and developed a PCO that undergoes dramatic entropy change during the process, allowing it to react under 1100℃. 

 

The invention of PCO is expected to foster mass production of hydrogen without pollution. The research was announced through the Energy and Environmental Science magazine.