Electrolysis is a chemical process which even a high school student is familiar with. This process, so well known and seemingly easy to implement can be a high potential source of clean energy in the future. When two electrodes submerged in water receive voltage through their length, the water molecules get split to get the byproducts of oxygen and hydrogen.
This hydrogen fuel can be stored and then reunited with oxygen molecules to form electricity. But as simple as it sounds, technical and chemical difficulties have barricaded the universal use of this technology leading to the non-utilization of an extremely future-sound method of producing energy. However brilliant minds at McIntyre and Chidsey have overpowered one of those major blockades which was electrode corrosion which led to a hostile environment for water splitting.
These electrodes are generally made of silicon (silicon actually aids production of electrons) which erodes easily in water, to overcome this scientists have developed a protective layer of titanium dioxide-about a two nanometers thick which provides extreme durability for the silicon electrodes during the water splitting process. Another brainstorm by the workers at McIntyre and Chidsey is adding a layer of ultra thin iridium which acts as a catalyst to the entire process.
Thus with this glitch taken care of, this new set up uses solar energy during the day to split water molecules into oxygen and storable hydrogen fuel and then when darkness befalls, the hydrogen and oxygen again come together to create electricity. Thus a clean,free of hassle technology helps in solving to a great extent one of the greatest challenges facing mankind today.
Scarcity of natural resources and increased encouragement to use renewable resources of energy gather the maximum momentum with this idea. Take a bow to Yi Wei Chen and Jonathan Prange, the lead doctoral students on the McIntyre-Chidsey team for their miraculous solution to a long-time hanging problem.
Thus we can say that advancement in science not only creates dilemmas but inspite of actually bringing about progressive growth, also devices solutions to eliminate the problems created by them. Kudos to this Stanford team for coming out clean and making the world come clean and green too.
Via: Physorg
