Aluminium-based Electrode Materials for Green Hydrogen Production through Electrolysis and Hydrolysis: A Review

In recent years, the utilization of aluminium (Al), Al alloys, and their composite powder and anode encourages the generation of green hydrogen through hydrolysis and water splitting electrolysis with zero emissions. As such, in this study, the development and characterization of Al, Al alloys, and Al-based composite powder and compacted Al composites for clean hydrogen production using hydrolysis and water splitting processes were reviewed. Herein, based on the available literature, it is worth mentioning that the incorporation of active additives, such as h-BN, Bi@C, g-C3N4, MoS2, Ni, In, Fe, and BiOCl@CNTs in the Al-based composites using ball milling, melting, smelting, casting, and spark plasma sintering technique remarkably improved the rate of hydrogen evolution and hydrogen gas conversion yield, particularly during hydrolysis of Al-water reaction. Again, Al-based electrodes with improved electrical conductivity notably results in better water splitting electrolysis, as well as fast chemical reaction in achieving hydrogen gas production at low energy consumption with efficiency. Though, notwithstanding the significance of Al, Al alloy, and Al-based composite hydrogen generation performances, there are still some challenges associated with the Al-based materials for hydrogen production via hydrolysis and water electrolysis. For example, the low current density and poor electrochemical properties of Al, which on the other hand results in long induction time, high overpotential and cost remains a gap to bridge. Hence, the authors concluded the review study with recommendations for future improvement of Al-based composite electrodes on hydrogen production and sustainability via hydrolysis and water electrolysis. Thus, the study will pave the way for further research on clean hydrogen energy generation.