Science在今早刚刚刊登了一篇名为“Decoupled catalytic hydrogen evolution from a molecular metal oxide redox mediator in water splitting”的文章，通讯作者为来自于University of Glasgow（格拉斯哥大学）的无机大牛Leroy Cronin教授。(http://www.sciencemag.org/content/345/6202/1326.full?sid=66dfc8d1-611d-4d48-bc42-dae72a05d14f)
我们知道，电催化分解水虽然是产生氢气的一个比较有前途的途径，但是它需要电能源源不断的输入来辅助这一反应的进行。在这篇文章中，作者通过引入一种氧化还原介质（硅钨酸），把低压水氧化产氧电极和催化产氢电极相连，这一设计可以不需要电能的输入。这个方法不仅可以避免电催化反应池中高压气体的产生（影响质子交换膜降解的主要原因），而且还能够消除氢气和氧气在低电流时的混合（氢气和氧气复合发生逆反应产生水）。作者发现，这样设计的铂急催化体系，可以产生比质子交换膜基电催化体系的最好产氢活性高30多倍的电催化产氢活性。
The electrolysis of water using renewable energy inputs is being actively pursued as a route to sustainable hydrogen production. Here we introduce a recyclable redox mediator (silicotungstic acid) that enables the coupling of low-pressure production of oxygen via water oxidation to a separate, catalytic hydrogen production step outside the electrolyzer that requires no post-electrolysis energy input. This approach sidesteps the production of high-pressure gases inside the electrolytic cell (a major cause of membrane degradation) and essentially eliminates the hazardous issue of product gas crossover at the low current densities that characterize renewables-driven water-splitting devices. We demonstrated that a platinum-catalyzed system can produce pure hydrogen over 30 times faster than state-of-the-art proton exchange membrane electrolyzers at equivalent platinum loading.