Liu, Z.Yin, Z.Cox, Casandra RBosman, M.Qian, X.Li, N.Zhao, H.Du, Y.Li, J.Nocera, Daniel2017-07-202016Liu, Z., Z. Yin, C. Cox, M. Bosman, X. Qian, N. Li, H. Zhao, Y. Du, J. Li, and D. G. Nocera. 2016. “Room Temperature Stable COx-Free H2 Production from Methanol with Magnesium Oxide Nanophotocatalysts.” Science Advances 2 (9) (September 2): e1501425–e1501425. doi:10.1126/sciadv.1501425.2375-2548http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:33468943Methanol, which contains 12.6 weight percent hydrogen, is a good hydrogen storage medium because it is a liquid at room temperature. However, by releasing the hydrogen, undesirable CO and/or CO2 byproducts are formed during catalytic fuel reforming. We show that alkaline earth metal oxides, in our case MgO nanocrystals, exhibit stable photocatalytic activity for CO/CO2-free H2 production from liquid methanol at room temperature. The performance of MgO nanocrystals toward methanol dehydrogenation increases with time and approaches ~320 μmol g−1 hour−1 after a 2-day photocatalytic reaction. The COx-free H2 production is attributed to methanol photodecomposition to formaldehyde, photocatalyzed by surface electronic states of unique monodispersed, porous MgO nanocrystals, which were synthesized with a novel facile colloidal chemical strategy. An oxygen plasma treatment allows for the removal of organic surfactants, producing MgO nanocrystals that are well dispersible in methanol.en-USJournal Article2017-05-1120162017-07-2010.1126/sciadv.1501425