CATALYTIC PROPERTIES OF Ni-V COATING IN THE PROCESS OF HYDROGEN RELEASE

Solar and hydrogen energy play an important role in providing a variety of industrial facilities with electricity and heat. One of the priorities of modern industry is to increase the production of environmentally friendly energy source – electrochemical synthesis of hydrogen. Modern methods of electrolysis of water do not meet the need for its use, due to the high cost of electrosynthesis of water-alkaline electrolysis, which depends on the material and energy consumption of electrolysis. The useful energy consumption for the production of energy – hydrogen at the cathode and "unnecessary" costs - for the release of oxygen at the anode, depend on the overvoltage of the respective reactions. Therefore, the most important problem of hydrogen energy is the synthesis of electrode materials with low overvoltage of O2 and H2. Electrode materials with low overvoltage will reduce the specific consumption of electricity in obtaining hydrogen by "classical" electrolysis. The prospects of reducing the cathodic and anodic overvoltage, which is a significant part of the voltage at the terminals of the cell, for the development of highly efficient and competitive technologies for hydrogen production by low-temperature electrolysis of an alkaline solution have been theoretically substantiated and experimentally confirmed. To reduce the overvoltage of the cathodic hydrogen evolution, it is proposed to modify the surface of the cathodes. The application of a small amount of electrolytic alloys of metals of the iron family with molybdenum and tungsten on nickel, cobalt, titanium and steel electrodes significantly (by 40–50 %) reduces the overvoltage of cathodic release of hydrogen from alkali solution. The use of steel electrodes, the surface of which is modified with vanadium and ni-ckel, reduces the voltage drop on the cell during the synthesis of H2 and O2 by 0.2–0.3 V, which creates conditions for reducing energy costs and energy savings.