Two independent teams have taken inspiration from nature to develop better ways of producing hydrogen with solar cells. The first team, from the University of Michigan in the US, achieved a record-breaking solar-energy-to-hydrogen efficiency of more than 9% using a solar panel containing an indium gallium nitride (InGaN) catalyst. The second team, from the EPFL in Switzerland and Toyota Motors Europe, created a new type of transparent, porous gas diffusion electrode that harvests water from the air and turns it into hydrogen when exposed to sunlight. Both technologies could, in principle, supply hydrogen for fuel cells and industrial processes in a “green” way, without the need for fossil-fuel precursors.
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