A team of local scientists say they have discovered a water oxidation catalyst that can boost the efficiency of electrochemical water splitting, which is carried out to produce hydrogen.
 
The team led by Professor Nam Ki-tae of Seoul National University’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering said on Monday that it developed the new catalyst by imitating the concept of photosynthesis and applying manganese.
 
The team also unveiled ways to apply the catalyst which was found to be 50 times more efficient in electrochemical water splitting than existing manganese catalysts.
 
The team focused on the point that the biological Mn4CaO5 cluster, which exists in plants and bacteria, is more efficient in water splitting than metal catalysts.
 
The latest research results were published on the online edition of the U.S.’s Journal of the American Chemical Society.