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Updated: Dec 27, 2025

Simple Methods for the Preparation of Non-noble Metal Bulk-electrodes for Electrocatalytic Applications
Published on: June 21, 2017
Engineering a solid-state metalloprotein hydrogen evolution catalyst
Trevor D Rapson1, HyungKuk Ju2, Paul Marshall3
1Health and Biosecurity, CSIRO, Canberra, 2601, ACT, Australia. trevor.rapson@csiro.au.
Abstract:
Hydrogen has the potential to play an important role in decarbonising our energy systems. Crucial to achieving this is the ability to produce clean sources of hydrogen using renewable energy sources. Currently platinum is commonly used as a hydrogen evolution catalyst, however, the scarcity and expense of platinum is driving the need to develop non-platinum-based catalysts. Here we report a protein-based hydrogen evolution catalyst based on a recombinant silk protein from honeybees and a metal macrocycle, cobalt protoporphyrin (CoPPIX). We enhanced the hydrogen evolution activity three fold compared to the unmodified silk protein by varying the coordinating ligands to the metal centre. Finally, to demonstrate the use of our biological catalyst, we built a proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolysis cell using CoPPIX-silk as the hydrogen evolution catalyst that is able to produce hydrogen with a 98% Faradaic efficiency. This represents an exciting advance towards allowing protein-based catalysts to be used in electrolysis cells.
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