Cheap water splitting catalyst takes on precious peers
Hardy cobalt-based polyoxometalate can handle water splitting’s acidic conditions to compete with the best costly catalysts
Splitting water to produce hydrogen is one renewable energy vision of the future. But the best catalysts are made from the rarest, priciest metals and cheap, abundant metal catalysts can’t cut it in the acidic environment that comes from splitting water. But adding a simple carbon paste to a polyoxymetalate containing Earth-abundant metals has created the first catalyst of its kind that can not only survive the harsh acidic conditions of water splitting, but is as good as its costly peers.1