Physicists have discovered a revolutionary way to get hydrogen from air using graphene.

Andrei Geim and his team of physicists found a new revolutionary method of producing hydrogen from the air using graphene - Nature magazine reported that it turned out that under certain conditions, graphene passes positively charged hydrogen ions (ie, protons) and delays almost everything else. In fact, graphene can be used as a membrane for filtering hydrogen atoms. Combining this technology with hydrogen fuel cells , you can get an environmentally friendly source of energy, which will be a breakthrough comparable to nuclear fission. Marcelo Lozada-Hidalgo, a colleague of Heim on research, told in the comments to their work: “We are extremely pleased with the result of the research, because it opens up new possibilities in graphene applications in the fields of“ green ”energy and hydrogen-based technologies”.

Andrei Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, both graduates of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2010 for the discovery of graphene, a two-dimensional crystalline form of carbon, where atoms are located in a single layer that is several times stronger than steel. Because of its good electrical conductivity, as well as its ability to trap any gases and liquids, it can potentially be used to create a corrosion-resistant coating or impermeable packaging. Knowing these properties of graphene, physicists decided to test how it interacts with hydrogen atoms. It turned out that at elevated temperatures and the presence of platinum as a catalyst, graphene quite freely passes positively charged hydrogen ions.

Material with such properties can be used in future fuel cells. Existing cells use oxygen and hydrogen, extracting electrical energy from their interaction. The electrons create a current, and the protons leave through the membranes. Modern membranes (for example, from Nafion is a Teflon-based polymer that is ion permeable and resistant to chemical attack) are not 100% up to the task. First, they are several micrometers thick and the proton flux through them is not as powerful as we would like. Secondly, they do not fully protect against hydrogen leaks. Durable and at the same time thin material that only passes protons, would solve two problems at once. The same material can potentially extract hydrogen from water or air at no extra cost. As Geim says, “these are assumptions — but in times before our work this would have been science fiction.”