Hydrogen Fuel Tech Gets Boost from Low-Cost, Efficient Catalyst

Hydrogen Fuel Tech Gets Boost from Low-Cost, Efficient Catalyst

A scanning electron microscope image of tiny silicon pillars, used to absorb light. When dotted with the new catalyst and exposed to sunlight, these pillars efficiently generate hydrogen gas from the hydrogen ions liberated by splitting water. Each pillar is approximately two micrometers in diameter. (Image courtesy of Christian D. Damsgaard, Thomas Pedersen and Ole Hansen, Technical University of Denmark.)

by Staff Writers
Menlo Park, CA (SPX) May 03, 2011
Scientists have engineered a cheap, abundant alternative to the expensive platinum catalyst and coupled it with a light-absorbing electrode to make hydrogen fuel from sunlight and water.

The discovery is an important development in the worldwide effort to mimic the way plants make fuel from sunlight, a key step in creating a greenenergy economy. It was reported last week in Nature Materials by theorist Jens Norskov of the Department ofEnergy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University and a team of colleagues led by Ib Chorkendorff and Soren Dahl at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU).

Hydrogen Fuel Tech Gets Boost from Low-Cost, Efficient Catalyst