Researchers at India’s National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune, have engineered a new strategy to replace NCL researchers replaced expensive noble metal catalysts with an iron catalyst for hydrogen production. Source: NCLexpensive noble metal catalysts with an iron catalyst for hydrogen production. The economical, sustainable process is based on the use of abundantly available alcohols such as N-heterocycles and amines as starting reaction materials, along with the iron catalyst.

The catalytic material is obtained by thermally pyrolyzing an iron complex using a unique core–shell architecture composed of oxide as a shell and carbide as a core of iron. Argon gas is passed through a reaction tube to create inert reaction conditions in place of air. The reaction mixture is then refluxed to realize maximum conversion of starting material, resulting in hydrogen production.

The researchers documented an exceptional catalytic property in oxidant-free and acceptorless dehydrogenation of N-heterocycles, relatively abundant alcohols and amines with the concomitant generation of hydrogen gas. The catalyst can also be retrieved with a magnet for reuse.

This reaction could be important for the exploitation of several types of abundant alcohols which can be obtained from lignocellulose and other waste sources.

The research is published in the journal Nature Communications.