Supported Manganese Organic Framework as Catalyst for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction
Authors: Quach Qui , Biehler Erik , Abdel-Fattah Tarek M 
Published: February 2024

The dependence on fossil fuels has caused significant harmful impact on the environment. The combustion of fossil fuels increases the harmful greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide and methane. The pollution not only worsens the impact of global warming but also affects human health. Many renewable energy sources have been discovered to replace fossil energy, but it is a challenge to find a cheap and effective energy source. Hydrogen arises as a potential candidate due to its high energy density and abundance. However, hydrogen was difficult to store. Hydrogen was often stored in liquid form at high pressure and extremely low temperature conditions. Another method of effectively storing hydrogen is by using hydrogen feedstock materials such as sodium borohydride. Sodium borohydride can be stored at room temperature and has a high gravimetric hydrogen capacity of 10% by weight. However, the process of extracting hydrogen from the materials was slow so it required catalysts. Many precious metal catalysts such as gold and silver catalyst have been applied to improve hydrogen generation reaction, but those metal catalysts were expensive to create. Additionally, those metal catalysts were often agglomerate and impossible to reuse. In this study, we used a non-precious metal complex supported over carbon-based materials to catalyze the hydrogen evolution reaction. We discovered a novel method of synthesizing manganese terephthalate complex at room temperature. The metals complex was coupled with graphene (G) and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) to increase its durability and efficiency. Each material was characterized by Powdered X-ray diffraction (P-XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). During the reaction with sodium borohydride, we discovered that the manganese terephthalate complex converted to manganese boride and further improved the catalysis process. In the first trial, the reaction catalyzed by Mn complex coupled with MWCNT produced 25ml of hydrogen. At the fifth reuse trials, the amount of generated hydrogen (~44 ml) was nearly doubled. A similar phenomenon was observed in Mn complex coupled with graphene. This study introduces a novel method in synthesizing a stable, cheap and efficient catalyst for hydrogen evolution.

References:

J Osborne, MR Horten, TM Abdel-Fattah, ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology 9 (7), 071004 (2020)

Quach, E. Biehler, A. Elzamzami, C. Huff, J.M. Long, T.M. Abdel Fattah, Catalysts, 11, 118 (2021).

T Dushatinski, C Huff, TM Abdel-Fattah, Applied Surface Science 385, 282-288 (2016)

C Huff, JM Long, A Heyman, TM Abdel-Fattah, ACS Applied Energy Materials 1 (9), 4635-4640 (2018)

C Huff, T Dushatinski, TM Abdel-Fattah, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 42 (30), 18985-18990 (2016)

TM Abdel-Fattah, A Wixtrom, K Zhang, W Cao, H Baumgart, ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology 3 (10), M61 (2014)

C Huff, JM Long, A Aboulatta, A Heyman, TM Abdel-Fattah, ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology 6 (10), M115 (2017)

C Huff, T Dushatinski, A Barzanji, N Abdel-Fattah, K Barzanji, ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology 6 (5), M69-M71 (2017)

C Huff, E Biehler, Q Quach, JM Long, TM Abdel-Fattah, Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects 610 (5), 125734 (2021)

C Huff, JM Long, TM Abdel-Fattah, Catalysts 10 (9), 1014 (2020)

Biehler, Q. Quach, C. Huff, T. M. Abdel-Fattah, Materials, 15, 2692 (2022).

Quach, T.M. Abdel Fattah, Nanomaterials, 12, 3341 (2022).