New catalyst for future energy storage

In order to allow solar and wind energy to make a greater contribution to our future energy supply, it must be possible to store this energy efficiently, for instance in the form of hydrogen. This is done by means of the electrical cleavage of water in an electrolyser. Thanks to a new catalyst material developed by researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, this process may become cheaper and more efficient in the future. The team has also been able to demonstrate how the new catalyst can be produced in large quantities, as reported in the latest issue of 'Nature Materials'. As solar and wind energy are not always available, they can only make a significant contribution to achieving a sustainable energy supply if they can be stored efficiently. A promising approach to this is energy storage in the form of hydrogen. For this, water is split into hydrogen and oxygen in an electrolyser, using electricity from solar or wind energy.