Hydrogen Bond Networks for Stable and Sustainable Production of Hydrogen From Seawater via Contact-Electro-Catalysis

Hydrogen production from seawater offers a sustainable pathway to obtain clean energy while alleviating the shortage of freshwater resources. However, the corrosive marine environment presents a significant challenge for conventional metal-based catalysts. Here, we propose a contact-electro-catalysis (CEC) strategy that employs nonmetallic fluorinated SiO₂ (F-SiO₂) for effectively extracting hydrogen from seawater by mechanical agitations. In contrast to conventional fluorocarbon polymers that can hardly be electrified by contact with ionic liquids, F-SiO₂ group could still maintain high CE performance and thus exhibit 2.91 times higher H₂ yield. Mechanistic investigations reveal that ion exclusion by hydrogen bond networks at F-SiO₂/water interface should be the dominant reason for such performance enhancement. In practical applications using real seawater from Bohai sea, the F-SiO₂-based CEC delivers a stable hydrogen yield during a continuous ultrasonication for 1000 h. We expect this strategy could not only provide a sustainable platform for in situ hydrogen production from seawater by utilizing unlimited mechanical energy in the ocean, but also enable a feasible route for improving the liquid-solid contact-electrification (CE) especially under high salinity conditions.