A material that splits water into oxygen and hydrogen at room temperature using relatively little electricity could be an important step toward affordable chemical storage of solar power.

James Barber, a biochemist at Imperial College London, UK, calls the work an "outstanding contribution" to solar energy research.

"We have to have catalysts which are cheap, and we have to have systems which are very robust," Barber says. "I see this as one big step in that direction." He points out that the new electrode produces as much oxygen using 1 volt as would be produced by 1.6 volts using electrolysis.