Sun-powered water splitter makes hydrogen tirelessly

Sunlight + water = hydrogen gas, in a new technique that can convert 60 per cent of sunlight energy absorbed by an electrode into the inflammable fuel.

To generate the gas Thomas Nann and colleagues at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK, dip a gold electrode with a special coating into water and expose it to light. clusters of indium phosphide 5 nanometres wide on its surface absorb incoming photons and pass electrons bearing their energy on to clusters of a sulphurous iron compound.

This material combines those electrons with protons from the water to form gaseous hydrogen. A second electrode – plain platinum this time – is needed to complete the circuit electrochemically.

Full story here: /yaqu4a8

I have zero hopes of this ever being anything more than yet more hydrogen supressed tech.

wow, cool, a inexaustable source of energy...nice knowing you.

they have a choice now...either release the entire diagram and specifications on the net for the entire world to grab and use, creating "open source tech" for it, and let the world usher in a new age, or make a couple million bucks off some oil company that will buy the rights and promptly bury it.

gee, I wonder which one will happen. Which will win this battle, human greed or human desire for worldwide advancement...

I agree. This tech is slated for the vanishing act, like so many others.

Any method that makes energy acquisition too easy will not go unsuppressed.

Sun-powered water splitter makes hydrogen tirelessly

I never knew tires were a byproduct of the common methods for the splitting of the dihydrogen monoxide molecule. At least the problem is solved before we have far more tires than cars that need them. Otherwise, we could hardly call it eco-friendly fuel.

Edit: Change title into NewScientist working link.

[edit on 2/11/2010 by EnlightenUp]

Yup, I've lost count of how many universities and scientific experimentations have gone on to "blow their own minds" with discoveries just like this.

I guess they haven't summed up the equation that scarcity equal profit and abundance equals the opposite. Kudos to them for adding their names to the long list of problem solving yet profit choking energy visionaries.

Maybe next time they'll learn that success in the lab, is solving as few problems as possible. That's where fame and recognition resides.

Originally posted by SaturnFX
the entire world to grab and use

Because everyone has platinum electrodes lying around

Originally posted by Incendia vox

Originally posted by SaturnFX
the entire world to grab and use

Because everyone has platinum electrodes lying around

He and colleagues now plan to refine the system, including lowering the cost by making it with less expensive materials. "There is no major reason for using gold or platinum," he says: those materials were used simply because they are common in the laboratory.

from the same article

reply to post by Incendia vox


my thoughts exactly, average Joe cant just go out and buy a platinum electrode...

reply to post by iforget


My thoughts exactly -- the scientists can find a cheap alternative to platinum.

reply to post by iforget


Gold and platinum and common in the laboratory? Just how much do they have lying around in laboratories? Do they hide the precious metal reserves in labs and leave Fort Knox as a decoy? What do they call the substitutes? Nutri-platinum and Nutri-gold? Or perhaps Pinto-Sweet and Auri-Sweet?

Well, as long as it makes H2 with fewer calories...

Hmmm, may even be economically practical for doing something like generating the massive amounts of hydrogen required to replace transport fuels, or coal, or something, that is assuming that:

a) they can find a way to replace the gold with something that can cheaply and easily be obtained in massive quantities (anyone looked at gold prices and production/availability issues lately?).

b) the 'special substance' coating is also cheaply and easily obtained, with at least less ethically or politically challenging consequences as say 'rare-earth' metals?

If they can do that I guess we should all be rejoicing.

Mind you, credit where credit's due for some good science pushing at least our understanding of what can be done forward.

Originally posted by EnlightenUp
reply to post by iforget

 

Gold and platinum and common in the laboratory? Just how much do they have lying around in laboratories? Do they hide the precious metal reserves in labs and leave Fort Knox as a decoy? What do they call the substitutes? Nutri-platinum and Nutri-gold? Or perhaps Pinto-Sweet and Auri-Sweet?

Well, as long as it makes H2 with fewer calories...

their words not mine though i can see that in an electronics lab gold and platinum electrodes would not be uncommon

reply to post by Chuffer


Its not really new technology, Hydrogen electrolysers have been around for decades, we still use them to produce Hydrogen for our weather balloons here, although, they are being phased out now.

Interesting that they have been able to reproduce the process using sunlight though. I wonder if its more effective?

For all those who posted "The Gov't will only suppress this technology so why bother" - You people absolutely suck. Try doing something innovative instead of being a "useless eater" will ya? Geesh.


Now what I wanted to say was making the hydrogen efficiently is half the battle. If they combine this with a metal Hydrite storage system, they can start putting these into cars to do some damn useful work. We are getting there finally, I believe.



[edit on 14-2-2010 by ATS4dummies]

reply to post by SaturnFX


Care to show us some suppressed tech? Each time I hear someone saying some technology they heard of in the lab was suppressed, it turns out that the technology wasn't as efficient as thought, or problems arose bringing it to market (usually because manufacturing is too expensive), and not some strange counter-productive conspiracy that makes no sense.

reply to post by davesidious


This technology wont be suppressed because it already exists through electrolysis. Seeing as I work for a government agency, and we need Hydrogen for our weather balloons, there is no chance that thi technology will be suppressed here

reply to post by OzWeatherman


Hehehe Indeed. You shadowy types get all the breaks!

here you go. This is my solution to introduce solar power to the mix.

solar panel, connected to battery, running electrolysis.

bam, solar powered electrolysis.

Originally posted by LeeTheDestroyer
here you go. This is my solution to introduce solar power to the mix.

solar panel, connected to battery, running electrolysis.

bam, solar powered electrolysis.

you may want to read the title of the thread at least......good idea though.......that's exactly what we are talking about

reply to post by ATS4dummies


Indeed. The UK Government is investing heavily in Hydrogen technology and parts of Wales are being fitted out to have a complete Hydrogen infrastructure as a test bed for a national roll out. There will be no conspricay with Hydrogen, not in the West. Freeing the West from dependance on foreign Oil is a primary goal for many Governments.

Sure, there are conspiracies, but when you start to see them everywhere where none exist is the time you should take a step back and do some knitting.