ORU Scientist Helps Develop Novel Nanoparticle Technology

Tulsa, OK – Oral Roberts University Scientist, Dr. Enrique Valderrama-Araya, who in collaboration with material scientists from Brazil, China, the UK, and the USA, has developed a novel hydrogen evolution reaction for exploring the extent of platinum nanoparticles dissolution upon the surface of carbon nanostructured electrodes.

The team’s research, recently published in Nanoscale, a high impact international journal, demonstrated how platinum nanoparticles can potentially be used to cheaply mass manufacture catalyst systems for application within commercial electrolysers.

“Platinum-carbon systems that transform protons and electrons into hydrogen gas have been studied and used for decades, however the amount of platinum used made them expensive to produce and be a competitive source of green energy using hydrogen as fuel. Our use of platinum nanoparticles increases the area of interaction of the electrode whilst keeping the mass required low,” said Dr. Valderrama, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Data Science Major Advisor. “Imagine having a piece of paper your crumple to a small space, the surface is still the same – keeping its reactivity – but now using a small volume. The challenge was to produce the decoration of nanoparticles as a cheap method to coat nanostructured carbon electrodes and to be compatible with a mass production process.”

Dr. Valderrama, who is also the Director of ORU’s Plasma Physics and Surface Characterization labs, is continuing his research at ORU with his interdisciplinary undergraduate research group.

“We are so fortunate to have someone like Dr. Valderrama at ORU,” said Dr. Andrew Lang, Chair of ORU’s Computing & Mathematics Department. “Our students couldn’t find a better mentor and research advisor.”

Research Paper: "Platinum nanoparticle decorated vertically aligned graphene screen-printed electrodes: electrochemical characterisation and exploration towards the hydrogen evolution reaction." Nanoscale 12.35 (2020): 18214-18224. doi: 10.1039/D0NR04336B

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This release was published on openPR.