NewHydrogen, Inc. reported on the progress of its Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER) catalyst that does not use iridium and is for use in proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers. The goal of NewHydrogenÆs sponsored research at UCLA is to lower the cost of green hydrogen by eliminating or drastically reducing the use of precious metals in electrolyzers. Electrolyzers currently rely on rare materials such as iridium and platinum. These materials often account for a substantial portion of the cost of electrolyzers. In 2021, researchers at UCLA funded by NewHydrogen developed a non-precious metal-based catalyst that does not use iridium but with significant improvement of OER in acidic conditions for PEM electrolyzers. Ongoing research at UCLA since then has focused on identifying optimal modification methods as well as establishing scientific evidence supporting the superior performance. In-depth analysis of the catalytic materials before and after the structural modification may also provide a path to further improvements in the future. As previously mentioned in the CompanyÆs June 2022 report, the OER catalyst samples before and after structure modification were subjected to a number of tests and measurements. The resulting data have been further analyzed to establish the key scientific evidence supporting the superior performance of its OER catalyst.
Doped elements were positioned within the modified structure of the catalyst in a specific manner associated with the enhanced material characteristics, thus deemed to be the origin of the superior OER performance. After extended OER cycles, average distance between certain atoms and coordination atoms within the modified catalyst changed substantially less than that of the catalyst without modification. Smaller change in average distance suggests a higher stability of the modified catalyst.