Using sunlight and nano catalysts to crack water into H2 and O2
In the continuing effort to find more efficient ways of generating hydrogen, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have harnessed nanotechnology to create a photocatalyst to crack water into its constituent elements. The team created a nanostructured film comprised of three semiconductor films. Prof. Pratim Biswas and grad student Elijah Thimsen developed a process for producing semiconductors like titanium dioxide and tungsten oxide that are put into films and sandwiched together. When placed in water with light, the catalyst triggers reactions that split the water into hydrogen and oxygen. [Source: NanoWerk.com]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Joseph 1:23AM (5/05/2007)
How much of this titanium dioxide and tungsten oxide is required to make a meaninful amount of hydrogen?
This is probably more like a little science expirement than an actual breakthrough.
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Tachy 1:18AM (5/05/2007)
It's already in work ;)
http://www.odb-tec.de/entwicklung.html
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shmuupy 9:39PM (5/05/2007)
I guess the key question is cost and efficiency. Sounds like great stuff though. I really think we are going to find a lot of unexpected solutions here, both in H2 generation and PV solar cells - we are just starting to really work on this. Imagine when all the material guys who have been working in SV on chips start in on solar panels - its going to be sick.
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