Research teams such as Kyoto University have announced in the Journal of the American Chemical Society that they have succeeded in developing an alloy that mixes all eight elements called precious metals such as gold, silver, and platinum (platinum) for the first time in the world.
As a catalyst for producing hydrogen by electrolysis from water, it is said that it has more than 10 times the performance of existing platinum, and the research team said, “For about 5,000 years from the Bronze Age, a dream alloy that no one succeeded was made. It may also lead to the solution of energy problems. ”
The other eight elements are palladium, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium, and osmium. Both are rare and corrosion resistant. There are combinations that do not mix like water and oil, and it has been considered difficult to combine them all.
A team of Professor Hiroshi Kitagawa (inorganic chemistry) of the Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University used a method called “non-equilibrium chemical reduction method” to pour a solution containing metal ions of eight elements uniformly into a reducing agent at 200 degrees Celsius. We succeeded in making a nano (nano is one billionth) meter-scale alloy by reducing it. He also found a method for mass production in a high temperature and high pressure environment.
In 2020, Professor Kitagawa’s team is developing an alloy of five platinum group elements excluding gold, silver, and osmium. The platinum group is often used in catalysts, and the five-element alloy showed twice the activity of the platinum electrode used in the catalyst for hydrogen generation. Gold, silver, and osmium do not function as catalysts for hydrogen generation by themselves, but the alloy of eight elements mixed with them showed more than 10 times higher activity. It is said that it will promote mass production in cooperation with companies.
Hydrogen is attracting attention as a next-generation energy that does not emit carbon dioxide. Professor Kitagawa says, “It is surprising that the performance as a catalyst was improved by mixing gold and silver. This time, we mixed 8 elements evenly, but we can expect higher activity by changing the ratio.”
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