Magnetic Nanowires Take Hydrogen Production To The Next Level

As the world looks for cleaner ways to produce energy, green hydrogen (fuel made from water and renewable electricity) is gaining attention as a promising solution. To make green hydrogen affordable and efficient, better catalysts are needed to speed up the chemical reactions involved.

Researchers at INL – International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory have developed a new type of magnetic catalyst that could change the game. Their findings, recently published in ACS Nano, reveal how these magnetic nanowires efficiently catalyse the oxygen evolution reaction, a key reaction in hydrogen production from water.

The research team led by Yury Kolen’ko created cobalt ferrite (CoFe₂O₄) nanowires using a technique called electrospinning, which forms ultra-thin fibres by using an electric field to draw solid threads from a liquid solution; imagine sugar being spun into cotton candy, but at the nanoscale. By precisely controlling the calcination temperature, the team transformed the fibres into nanowires with excellent magnetic properties, critical for their catalytic performance.

Why does magnetism matter? The oxygen molecules, which are formed during the water-splitting process, have a special triplet spin state. When the catalyst is magnetic, it can influence the spin alignment of the reaction intermediates, guiding the reaction to proceed faster and more efficiently and favouring the formation of the triplet spin state.

The researchers tested the newly developed nanowires as catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction, and found that applying an external magnetic field doubled the catalyst’s performance. Remarkably, even after the magnetic field was removed, the catalyst continued to perform at a high level for several hours.

“This magnetic boost is exciting because it shows we can improve catalysts without using expensive platinum group metals,” says research group leader Kolen’ko. “Our work opens up new possibilities for making green hydrogen more accessible and affordable.”

This research demonstrates how catalyst materials and magnetic effects can work together to address major challenges in clean energy. Supported by the SpinCat and KNOWSKITE-X projects funded by the European Union, INL’s research could help accelerate the global shift to sustainable energy.