Nanostructured Catalyst Generates Hydrogen
5 February 2008, 15:37
Categories: energy
A U.S. company, Nanoptek, has developed a new way to make hydrogen from water using solar energy. The technology uses titania, a cheap and abundant material, to capture energy from sunlight. The absorbed energy releases electrons, which split water to make hydrogen. Other researchers have used titania to split water in the past, but Nanoptek researchers found a way to modify titania to absorb more sunlight, not just ultraviolet light.
The researchers found that depositing a coating of titania on dome-like nanostructures caused the atoms to be pulled apart. “When you pull the atoms apart, less energy is required to knock the electrons out of orbit,” John Guerra, the company’s founder and CEO. “That means you can use light with lower energy—which means visible light” rather than just ultraviolet light.
The strain on the atoms also affects the way that electrons move through the material. Too much strain, and the electrons tend to be reabsorbed by the material before they split water. Guerra says that the company has had to find a balance between absorbing more sunlight and allowing the electrons to move freely out of the material.
Posted by: The Editors
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