Hydrogen gas is earmarked as an alternative green energy for the future replacing hydrocarbon-based fuels. Subsequently, carbon-neutral driven economy has been dominating in many developed/developing countries around the world, influencing policies at high levels of decision-making. Hydrogen is considered green since it is electrolytically extracted from water through photolysis, producing only Hydrogen and Oxygen gases, normally with hydrogen evolution reaction at the cathode while oxygen evolution reaction taking place at the anode.
Catalytic materials have always been at the center of driving the splitting of water and many other applications, ranging from photocatalysts and electrocatalysts. Moreover, a number of materials have been developed and reported in literature todate, however, a need for cost-effective materials and fabrication methods remains high in demand.
The challenging aspect of hydrogen production has always been the storage, due to its very low volumetric energy density. Lately, research have been moving away from physical methods of storages (mainly compressed gas, cold/cryo compressed and liquid hydrogen) towards material-based storages, i.e. adsorbents, liquid organic, chemical hydrogen, complex hydrides and interstitial hydrides. Material-based methods are relatively safe, stable, easy-to-handle and cost effective; they are also capable of storing relatively large volumetric quantities at molecular levels.
Proposed Activities (RESEARCH) for Capacity Building
Material characterization and analysis require certain equipments in place, such as UV-Vis-NIR Spectrophotometer, Raman Spectrophotometer, XRD spectrophotometer, Elemental Analyser, GC-MS coupled Spectrophotometer, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Fluorescence Spectrophotometer.