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Research

Efficient H₂ from Formic Acid / Formate

Building a real-time, operando pH-measurement setup to track how the formic acid–to–formate ratio drives catalytic hydrogen output, and using it to find the conditions that maximize H₂ generation.

  • Materials
Efficient H₂ from Formic Acid / Formate schematic

Background

Formic acid and its conjugate base, formate, both act as hydrogen sources when catalytically decomposed, and mixing the two turned out to be more interesting than either alone. Their ratio sets the pH, which strongly influences catalyst activity — but pH drifts as the reaction proceeds, so a single before-or-after measurement misses most of what’s happening. I built an operando pH-measurement setup, with a probe integrated directly into the reactor, to track pH continuously and map catalytic activity against the acid-to-formate ratio as it actually evolved.

Most formic-acid dehydrogenation work at the time treated the ratio as a fixed recipe decision. The operando setup turned it into a continuously observable variable instead — as much a methodology contribution as a materials one.

Formic acid also shows up as the proton source that drives the acid-mediated NaBH₄ hydrolysis used across the sodium borohydride platform — see Sodium Borohydride for Hydrogen Mobility & Compression.

What I did

  • Led the experimental design for the formic acid / formate ratio study.
  • Synthesized and characterized the catalyst.
  • Built the operando pH-monitoring setup to track the reaction live, in-reactor.
  • Carried out reaction product analysis and wrote the manuscript.

Outcomes

The study closed with a publication and an award:

  • Co-first-authored paper in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.
  • Best Poster Presentation Award, Korean Hydrogen and New Energy Society (KHNES), May 2022.
Award
Best Poster Presentation Award — The Korean Hydrogen and New Energy Society (KHNES), May 20, 2022. Topic: “Hydrogen production strategy from a mixture of formic acid and formate.”

Related publications

Strategy for Efficient H₂ Production from a Mixture of Formic Acid and Formate using Operando pH Measurements

ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 2022

Co-first author

Contribution: Conceptualization, experiments, catalyst characterization, reaction product analysis, manuscript writing

“Real-time pH tracking inside the reactor located the acid–formate ratio that maximizes H₂ output.”

doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.1c06603