As hydrogen inside fuel cells can generate electrical power, scalable methods to reliably split water into hydrogen and oxygen could have valuable implications for the energy industry. These methods could help to produce large amounts of hydrogen for more sustainable energy solutions, helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on Earth.
One approach to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen requires the use of photocatalysts, materials that can absorb light and use its energy to initiate chemical reactions. This approach essentially entails irradiating these materials with light, triggering the reaction through which water molecules become hydrogen and oxygen.
Researchers at Northwestern Polytechnical University in China recently introduced new hybrid photocatalysts that exhibit a remarkable internal quantum efficiency above 100%. These materials, introduced in a paper in Nature Energy, were found to overcome some of the shortcomings of previously proposed photocatalytic systems for water splitting processes.
"Over the past decade, researchers have made numerous attempts to achieve a solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of more than 10%, which is a competitive benchmark efficiency in the hydrogen market," Dr. Xuanhua Li, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told Tech Xplore.
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