Nickel Photocatalyst Produces Hydrogen from Water
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Scientists in Japan have developed a metal oxide that could lead to a renewable source of hydrogen
fuel
Nickel magazine, Mar. 02 -- An important step has been made along the way to developing
stable and efficient materials that use sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Zhigang Zou of the
Photoreaction Control Research Center, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in
Tsukuba, Japan, have tested a light-absorbing material that shows potential for making photoelectrolysis a
practical reality some day. In a recent issue of Nature (Dec. 6, 2001), Zou et. al. report that by
introducing nickel into an indium-tantalum oxide, the resulting material will absorb sufficient solar energy
from the visible region of the spectrum when immersed to make it possible to split the water into hydrogen
gas and oxygen.
Since the conversion efficiency of the system is less than 1%, further work needs to be done to produce
materials that absorb still more of the visible region of the spectrum.
Several metal oxides were identified in the 1970s as having the same potential for making photoelectrodes, but they operate only in ultraviolet light, which accounts for only 4% of incoming solar energy. The nickel-containing oxide identified by Zou, however, operates in less energetic, but more abundant visible light, which accounts for 43% of incoming solar radiation.
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1. "Light work with water," by Nathan S. Lewis, Nature, Vol. 414, December 6, 2001, p. 589.
2. "Direct splitting of water under visible light irradiation with an oxide semiconductor photocatalyst," by Zhigang Zou, Jinhua Ye, Kazuhiro Sayama & Hironori Arakawa, Nature, Vol. 414, December 6, 2001, p. 625. Nature |
