Eco Factor: Generating hydrogen from water using sunlight.
Researchers at the University of East Anglia have reported a breakthrough in hydrogen generation from water, with a new system that achieves 60 percent efficiency for a process in which hydrogen is produced from water by the photons striking a specially designed electrode.
While there is no shortage of processes to generate hydrogen from water, most of them rely on photovoltaic cells for electricity, making the entire process highly inefficient. A breakthrough in the generation of hydrogen using solar power could tip the balance in favor of hydrogen fuel cell technologies. Now researchers have come up with a process that is being reported to be about 60 percent efficient, or three times as efficient as conventional means.
The technology is based on the use of a nanophotocathode, which is a gold electrode coated with nanoclusters of indium phosphide. This material absorbs incoming photons of light. The electrons liberated are passed onto an iron-sulfur complex which acts a matchmaker between the negatively charged electron and a hydrogen proton in the surrounding water molecules producing hydrogen.
Via: Treehugger
