Room-temperature quasi-catalytic hydrogen generation from waste and water

• Published in: Green chemistry : an international journal and green chemistry resource : GC Vol. 23; no. 19; pp. 7528 - 7533
• Main Authors: Wu, Hongguo, Zhang, Li-Long, Wang, Junqi, Jiang, Yiyuan, Li, Hu, Sudarsanam, Putla, Yang, Song
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Royal Society of Chemistry 04.10.2021
• Subjects: ambient temperature; Catalysts; Fossil fuels; Green chemistry; Hydrogen production; Molecular dynamics; Ozone depletion; Ozone layer; Ozonosphere; petroleum; Room temperature; Solvation; solvents; wastes
• ISSN: 1463-9262; 1463-9270; 1463-9270
• DOI: 10.1039/d1gc02722k

A solvation-driven catalyst-free H 2 generation system from water and various waste hydrosilanes at room temperature was developed, with good to quantitative H 2 yields in minutes. Using a green solvent is found to promote the strong coordination of proton carriers with hydrosilane to liberate H 2 based on molecular dynamics simulations. Theoretical calculations clarify that OH − in situ generated from H 2 O enabled by solvation is favorable for activating the Si-H species of hydrosilane, and the in situ formed Si-OH interacts more effectively with the adjacent remaining Si-H, both contributing to the overall enhanced H 2 generation. Moreover, the overall life-cycle impacts of the developed system are less than those of industrial H 2 production processes, especially in ozone layer depletion and abiotic depletion resources - fossil fuels. This protocol realizes the potential of efficiently producing H 2 from waste and water, and opens a new avenue to alleviate petroleum consumption. A cost-effective, green solvent-enabled waste hydrosilane hydrolysis/alcoholysis protocol is developed for the quantitative generation of H 2 in minutes without any catalyst at room temperature.