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Human-Machine Collaboration for Accelerated Discovery of Promising Oxygen Evolution Electrocatalysts with On-Demand
Ken Sakaushi1, Watcharaporn Hoisang1, Ryo Tamura2,3
1Research Center for Energy and Environmental Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan.
This study introduces a human-AI collaboration using stepwise-evolving artificial intelligence (se-AI) to rapidly discover platinum-group-metal-free electrocatalysts for water electrolyzers. The AI approach significantly accelerates the identification of efficient and stable electrocatalysts for green hydrogen production.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Electrochemistry
- Artificial Intelligence
Background:
- Developing efficient electrocatalysts is crucial for advancing water-electrolyzers and achieving green hydrogen production.
- Identifying cost-effective, platinum-group-metal-free (PGM-free) electrocatalysts, especially for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), is a significant challenge.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate a drastically efficient method for identifying functional electrocatalysts using human-machine collaboration.
- To accelerate the development of PGM-free multimetal OER electrocatalysts with performance exceeding platinum-group-metals.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a stepwise-evolving artificial intelligence (se-AI) approach in collaboration with human expertise.
- Screened a large pool of potential electrocatalyst candidates, optimizing materials through AI-guided discovery.
Main Results:
- Achieved optimized PGM-free multimetal OER electrocatalysts after screening only 2% of the candidate pool.
- The best discovered electrocatalyst demonstrated activity comparable to RuO2 and superior stability at high current densities (1000 mA/cm2) even in alkaline conditions (pH 9.2).
Conclusions:
- Human-machine collaboration with se-AI significantly accelerates the discovery of advanced electrocatalysts.
- This approach enables the development of high-performance, stable, and cost-effective PGM-free electrocatalysts for large-scale green hydrogen production.
