Dipankar Saha and Team Co-author Paper on Iron-Nickel Metal Ensembles, a Potential Driver of Clean Energy Production
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Affordable, green energy production has long been promoted as a means to accelerate the decarbonization of sectors such as heavy industry, long-duration energy storage, and transportation, which are difficult to electrify. Such decarbonization would reduce greenhouse gas emissions while strengthening energy security and economic resilience.
But roadblocks to truly affordable production persist. In the case of hydrogen production, scale-up has been slowed in part by conventional methods struggling to precisely control metal clustering at high loadings—limiting catalyst efficiency, and driving up material and energy costs.
That might be about to change. New research co-authored by postdoctoral research associate Dipankar Saha and professor James Watkins of the College of Natural Sciences’ Department of Polymer Science and Engineering reveals a low-cost, energy-efficient catalyst that could accelerate the deployment of more affordable water-splitting systems and advance large-scale, sustainable fuel generation.
“Our research describes a seconds-scale, one-pot synthesis that locks iron-nickel (Fe-Ni) metal atoms into optimally spaced ensembles within a carbon matrix, creating a low-cost, scalable, non-precious oxygen evolution catalyst that operates seamlessly from lab-scale electrochemistry to real membrane electrode assembly (MEA) devices,” explains Saha. “This catalyst enables practical hydrogen production by functioning as the anode in alkaline water electrolyzers, where structure, speed, and metal-metal synergy are engineered together to deliver performance, durability, and scalability in a single platform.”
There are several immediate, real-world applications for hydrogen production enabled by such a catalyst:
A Public Good for the Commonwealth
The scalable, low-cost, rapid synthesis method enables domestic manufacturing of advanced energy materials, strengthening energy independence and technological sovereignty in Massachusetts. It supports economic development through clean-tech innovation, workforce training, and industrial translation. By making green hydrogen and sustainable energy systems more viable, it contributes to public infrastructure, environmental protection, and long-term energy security, benefiting communities at both regional and national levels.
Broader Society
By enabling high-performance, non-platinum water-splitting catalysts made from earth-abundant metals, this work directly supports the transition to clean hydrogen and sustainable fuels. It lowers cost barriers, improves energy efficiency, and accelerates deployment of green energy technologies. The outcome is broader access to clean-energy infrastructure, reduced carbon emissions, and long-term benefits for environmental health and climate resilience.
Science
This work transforms how electrocatalysts are designed and manufactured by introducing a synthesis that precisely controls metal-metal proximity at the atomic scale. It moves beyond traditional single-atom or nanoparticle strategies and establishes a new ensemble-based catalyst design paradigm, where synergistic metal interactions (Fe-Ni) are intentionally engineered. This advances fundamental understanding of structure-activity relationships in electrocatalysis and provides a scalable platform for rational catalyst design, not just a single material discovery.
It also offers a new scientific contribution: while Fe-Ni synergy in oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysis is well known, this work reveals how and where that synergy must be structurally organized, showing that surface-proximal Fe within a few atomic layers tunes nickel oxyhydroxide (NiOOH) activity, and introducing a seconds-scale photothermal synthesis that enables controlled formation of Fe-Ni ensembles (single atoms, clusters, and alloy nanoparticles) at high metal loading, providing a scalable route to rational, ensemble-based catalyst design.
Furthermore, this research provides both fundamental insights and practical solutions. “At the fundamental level, we revealed how Fe-Ni metal ensembles interact at the atomic scale and how interfaces in the carbon matrix govern electrocatalytic reactions, giving a deep understanding of structure–activity relationships,” says Saha. “We then translated these insights into a working device, integrating the catalysts into MEA systems for hydrogen production, and recently completing promising experiments on nitrogen reduction reactions (NRRs) to ammonia, showing that our approach is not just academic, but also scalable and impactful at the system level. This work bridges atomic-scale materials design into real-world electrochemical devices, demonstrating that fundamental science can directly guide practical, sustainable energy solutions.”
The outcomes of this research could lead to exciting advancements in clean energy production. “This research delivers a fast, scalable method to make Fe-Ni metal ensembles that drive clean hydrogen, oxygen, and ammonia production, while providing scientists a platform to study atomic-scale synergy in multi-metal catalysts for sustainable energy and chemical applications,” argues Saha. “In short, we found a fast, cheap way to arrange iron and nickel so they work together like a team to turn water into clean energy fuel. This could help make cleaner energy for the future and reduce pollution.”
This research is the result of an international collaboration between the College of Natural Sciences’ Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, the Riccio College of Engineering’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (with Nick Wu, Zhu (Clark) Chen, and Peng Bai), the University of New South Wales in Australia (with Richard Tilley), the Canadian Center for Electron Microscopy, and the National Synchrotron Research Center in Taiwan.
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