Japan discovers game-changing metal that boosts Hydrogen output by 1,000%—world closer to fossil-free future

Time of India

20-06-2025

Japan has revealed an effective way to move toward a green future, as researchers at the RIKEN Institute have a new way of producing green hydrogen, as per a report.
A New Hope for Green Hydrogen
While countries like Spain are producing green hydrogen by using renewable energy sources to do electrolysis of water, Japan has found a way to produce the green energy on a sustainable scale, as per the Farmingdale report.
Recently, the most popular way of producing hydrogen is via PEM electrolysers, which use a proton exchange membrane as the electrolyte, due to its greater efficiency and ability to respond rapidly to intermittent energy sources, according to the Farmingdale report.
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The PEM Electrolyser Problem
However, it's not a sustainable model because PEM electrolysers are very expensive and also require efficient catalysts that can resist corrosion in acid and therefore use platinum or iridium, which are rare and expensive metals, reported Farmingdale. It is used because iridium catalysts can prolong the oxygen conversion reaction and produce huge quantities of hydrogen, as per the report.
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Japan's Game-Changing Discovery
But now, researchers at Japan's RIKEN Institute discovered that there is a cheap material which is capable of doing the same thing, according to the report. Japanese researchers studied and used a common metal, manganese, and modified its three-dimensional structure to create the first efficient and sustainable
PEM electrolyser
without rare metals, as per the Farmingdale report.
According to the report, the researchers developed a manganese oxide (MnO2) catalyst by manipulating the lattice structure of the material to form stronger bonds with oxygen atoms. This improved MnO2 is even more stable than any other non-noble metal catalysts and even maintains the reaction with water for much longer, generating 1,000% more hydrogen, reported Farmingdale.
As per a study published in Nature Catalysis, MnO2 can increase the lifespan of other cheap catalysts by a factor of 40, reported Farmingdale. The researchers found that this material is more resistant to dissolution in acid and is also more stable during the reaction, Farmingdale. During the laboratory tests, the researchers found that the catalyst operated for more than 1,000 hours at 200 mA/cm² and produced 10 times more hydrogen than any other materials, as per Farmingdale.
Farmingdale wrote, "Future modifications to the manganese structure could further increase the current density supported by the material and the lifetime of the catalyst, with the long-term aim of making water electrolysis iridium-free."
FAQs
What did Japanese scientists discover?
They found a way to use manganese, a cheap and common metal, to replace expensive rare metals in hydrogen production, which will make the process more affordable and sustainable, as per the Farmingdale report.
Why is this important?
Because green hydrogen could be a key part of a
fossil-free energy
future, and Japan's discovery could help make it widely accessible.