(Phys.org) —A new catalyst is faster when it and its surrounding acid have the same proton affinity or pKa, according to scientists at the Center for Molecular Electrocatalysis, an Energy Frontier Research Center, at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The catalyst drives turning electrons and protons into a bond between two hydrogen atoms, storing the energy. Making the catalyst faster is vital to designing technologies that can store electrons created by wind turbines. The team's experimental and computational studies focused on the acid that supplies the reaction's protons. When the acid and the catalyst had the same pKa, the speed jumped from 2,400 and 27,000 hydrogen molecules a second to 4,100 to 96,000.
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