A review on hydrogen production: methods, materials and nanotechnology

In recent years hydrogen production and storage has attracted a lot of attention in both academia and industry due to its variety of applications in energy sector. Hydrogen is recognized as one of the most important components of the next generation clean energy technology. Within the whole cycle of the use of hydrogen energy, hydrogen production is considered as the key element of the upcoming hydrogen economy. Since the first production method invented for hydrogen on a smaller scale by dissolving iron in the acid vitriol in the 15th century, many improvements have been made to make the production viable and more cost effective. It is known that "nano" is playing its role in many technologies from medicine to material science and it has its say even in the production of hydrogen energy with continuous improvements in materials and methodologies. In this review we attempt to list various methods of producing hydrogen from different sources of materials followed by the description of most recent developments in the materials prospective. We explain the role of nanotechnology in making the hydrogen production technology a viable and cost effective process. The chemical reaction cycle, mechanism and configurations of various methods of hydrogen production are elaborated.