A facile non-photocatalytic technique for hydrogen gas production by hydroelectric cell

Abstract

Hydrogen gas is a zero-emission fuel for clean environment. In present work a novel environment friendly hydrogen producing technique based on nascently invented Hydroelectric cell has been reported. Hydroelectric cell is one of the unique non-polluting H2 gas generation methods compared to photo-biosynthesis, photo-electro-catalysis and thermo-chemical etc. Spontaneous dissociation of water molecule by Hydroelectric cell (HEC) has led this study for effective production of hydrogen gas. Moreover, a nanoporous lithium substituted magnesium ferrite used in HEC dissociates water molecule to produce hydrogen without using any electrolyte and light. Ferrite pellet combined with zinc and silver electrodes known as hydroelectric cell produces zinc hydroxide and hydrogen gas as a result of redox reaction. Nanoporous and oxygen deficient ferrite pellet has been synthesised with optimized processing conditions. Maximum average nanopore size distribution has been obtained 3.8 nm by N2 adsorption-desorption isotherm. Surface dangling bonds of unsaturated cations and oxygen vacancies in ferrite chemidissociate water molecule into hydroxide and hydronium ion. High purity hydrogen gas is produced continuously by applying different external voltage only on hydroelectric cell. Collected gas has been analysed by gas chromatography in comparison to pure reference hydrogen gas. This technique has produced hydrogen in large quantity 1.856 mmol/h compared to existing photocatalytic active ferrite methods. Hydrogen gas generation by HEC is an exclusively facile, low cost and novel technique.