Energy to-and-from Water

Energy from splitting off hydrogen from water molecules–that has nothing to do with the hydrogen bomb or the atom bomb. In fact, it requires energy input to rip a hydrogen atom out of a water molecule. But a new technology could make it easier to obtain hydrogen for fuel cells.

A research team at the University of East Anglia (England) has found a better way to split water to obtain hydrogen, which can later be recombined with oxygen (like slow burning) to produce energy. Common visible light can be used as the original energy source (sunlight), but the system is more efficient, and no organic molecules are needed (as they are in present systems). “It may be a highly promising alternative for industrial hydrogen production.”

In the total picture, water will receive sunlight energy and be destroyed (no longer water). But that potential energy will later be used, creating new water: a clean green energy solution indeed!

Water Splitting by Visible Light: A Nanophotocathode for Hydrogen Production