Hydrogen Bond Networks for Stable and Sustainable Production of Hydrogen From Seawater via Contact-Electro-Catalysis.

Wang, Ziming; Yang, Xueyan; Li, Huifan; Wu, Jun; Dong, Xuanli; Wang, Tingyu; Jiang, Dongjian; Liu, Hui et al. · Adv Mater · 2026

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Hydrogen production from seawater offers a sustainable pathway to obtain clean energy while alleviating the shortage of freshwater resources. However, the corrosive marine environment presents a significant challenge for conventional metal-based catalysts. Here, we propose a contact-electro-catalysis (CEC) strategy that employs nonmetallic fluorinated SiO<sub>2</sub> (F-SiO<sub>2</sub>) for effectively extracting hydrogen from seawater by mechanical agitations. In contrast to conventional fluorocarbon polymers that can hardly be electrified by contact with ionic liquids, F-SiO<sub>2</sub> group could still maintain high CE performance and thus exhibit 2.91 times higher H<sub>2</sub> yield. Mechanistic investigations reveal that ion exclusion by hydrogen bond networks at F-SiO<sub>2</sub>/water interface should be the dominant reason for such performance enhancement. In practical applications using real seawater from Bohai sea, the F-SiO<sub>2</sub>-based CEC delivers a stable hydrogen yield during a continuous ultrasonication for 1000 h. We expect this strategy could not only provide a sustainable platform for in situ hydrogen production from seawater by utilizing unlimited mechanical energy in the ocean, but also enable a feasible route for improving the liquid-solid contact-electrification (CE) especially under high salinity conditions.