Spontaneous hydrogen production using gadolinium telluride

Partha Kumbhakar; Arko Parui; Shikha Dhakar; Manas Paliwal; Rakesh Behera; Abhay Raj Singh Gautam; Soumyabrata Roy; Pulickel M Ajayan; Sudhanshu Sharma; Abhishek K Singh; Chandra S Tiwary

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.106510

Spontaneous hydrogen production using gadolinium telluride

iScience. 2023 Mar 30;26(4):106510. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106510. eCollection 2023 Apr 21.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, India.
² Department of Physics and Electronics, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore 560029, India.
³ Materials Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Karnataka 560012, India.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, Gandhinagar 382355, India.
⁵ Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar 382355, India.
⁶ Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA.

Abstract

Developing materials for controlled hydrogen production through water splitting is one of the most promising ways to meet current energy demand. Here, we demonstrate spontaneous and green production of hydrogen at high evolution rate using gadolinium telluride (GdTe) under ambient conditions. The spent materials can be reused after melting, which regain the original activity of the pristine sample. The phase formation and reusability are supported by the thermodynamics calculations. The theoretical calculation reveals ultralow activation energy for hydrogen production using GdTe caused by charge transfer from Te to Gd. Production of highly pure and instantaneous hydrogen by GdTe could accelerate green and sustainable energy conversion technologies.

Keywords: Inorganic materials; Materials chemistry; Materials science.