Solar powered water splitter to produce hydrogen!

Solar powered water splitter to produce hydrogen!

Solar powered water splitter to produce hydrogen!


The process of splitting water into pure oxygen and clean-burning hydrogen fuel has long been the Holy Grail for clean-energy advocates as a method of large-scale energy storage, but the idea faces technical challenges. Stanford researchers may have solved one of the most important ones.


Solar energy is fine when the sun is shining. But what about at night or when it is cloudy? To be truly useful, sunshine must be converted to a form of energy that can be stored for use when the sun is hiding. The notion of using sunshine to split water into oxygen and storable hydrogen fuel has been championed by clean-energy advocates for decades, but stubborn challenges have prevented adoption of an otherwise promising technology.

A team of Stanford researchers may have solved one of the most vexing scientific details blocking us from such a clean-energy future.

The team, led by materials science engineer Paul McIntyre and chemist Christopher Chidsey, has devised a robust silicon-based solar electrode that shows remarkable endurance in the highly corrosive environment inherent in the process of splitting water. They revealed their progress in a recent paper published in the journal Nature Materials.

Conceptually, splitting water could not be simpler. Scientists have long known that applying a voltage across two electrodes submerged in water splits the water molecules into their component elements, oxygen and hydrogen.

From an environmental standpoint, the process is a dream: an electrochemical reaction whose only requirements are water and electricity and whose only byproducts are pure oxygen and hydrogen, a clean-burning fuel applicable in a promising new class of renewable energy applications. In fact, hydrogen is the cleanest burning chemical fuel known. Practical challenges
“In theory, water splitting is a clean and efficient energy storage mechanism. Unfortunately, solving one problem creates another,” said McIntyre, associate professor of materials science and engineering. “The most abundant solar electrodes we have today are made of silicon, a material that corrodes and fails almost immediately when exposed to oxygen, one of the byproducts of the reaction.”

This particular problem has vexed researchers since at least the 1970s. Many had given up, but McIntyre and Chidsey have devised a clever solution. They coated their silicon electrodes with a protective, ultra-thin layer of titanium dioxide.

“Titanium dioxide is perfect for this application,” explained McIntyre. “It is both transparent to light and it can be efficient for transferring electricity, all while protecting the silicon from corrosion.”

Sunlight travels through the protective titanium dioxide into the photosensitive silicon, which produces a flow of electrons that travels through the electrochemical cell into the water, splitting the hydrogen from the oxygen. The hydrogen gas can be stored and then, when the sun is not shining, the process can be reversed, reuniting hydrogen and oxygen back into water to produce electricity.

Decades of dead ends
Other researchers had attempted to protect the electron-producing silicon electrodes. Some tried other materials, which failed for reasons of performance or durability. Some had even tried titanium dioxide, but those efforts also fell short. Their layers were either materially flawed, allowing oxygen to seep through and corrode the semiconductor, or too thick to be electrically conductive.

Yi Wei Chen and Jonathan Prange, the lead doctoral students on the McIntyre-Chidsey team, discovered that the key to the titanium dioxide’s protectiveness is achieving a very thin, yet high quality layer of material. They found that a layer just two nanometers thick was sufficient so long as it was free of the pinholes and cracks that doomed earlier titanium dioxide experiments.

With their electrodes successfully shielded from corrosion, the researchers revealed yet one more engineering ace in the hole, adding a third layer of ultra-thin iridium, a catalyst, atop the titanium dioxide. Iridium boosts the rate of the splitting reaction and improves performance of the system.

Broader applications
In side-by-side durability experiments, the researchers put their creation to the test. Control samples without the protective layer corroded and failed in less than a half-hour, while those with the titanium dioxide lasted the full duration of the test, eight hours without apparent corrosion or loss of efficiency.

The authors pointed out that their approach is general enough to work on other semiconductor substrates and to integrate other catalysts, allowing for fine-tuning of electrodes to maximize performance. Likewise, atomic layer deposition, the technique that allowed such fine and flawless layering, is in wide application in the semiconductor industry today. It should, therefore, lend itself to application on a large scale. Lastly, the results were achieved without exploring the use of other efficiency-enhancing techniques, such as surface texturing, which could further improve performance.

“We are excited about the possibilities of this technology,” said McIntyre, “as much for the electrode itself, as for the process used to create it.”

Their success might just push a promising technology one step closer to practical application and the world one step closer to a clean-energy future.

Seed funding for this work was provided by these Stanford groups: Precourt Institute for Energy, the Center for Integrated Systems and the Global Climate and Energy Project.

Andrew Myers is the associate director of communications for the Stanford School of Engineering.

One Response so far.

  1. Anonymous says:

    nice share

    Category List

    • 3D Animation Video
    • 3D presentation
    • 3G
    • 3G Data Cards
    • 5 Essential Diet Tips
    • A Way to Earn $100 A Day..Capitalize on FaceBook
    • Accessories
    • Adsense
    • Amazon
    • Android
    • Apple
    • Approval
    • Article
    • basic I.T
    • best ways of burning fat
    • Bike
    • biomedical
    • Biomedical Engineering
    • BlackBerry
    • Blogs
    • Bodybuilder
    • Bodybuilder Diet
    • Bodybuilder's Diet
    • Books
    • brain
    • Brain Cancer
    • brain structure
    • Brain Tumor
    • Brain wired for learning
    • Breakfast Diet
    • Bucknell Engineering Week
    • Bucknell Engineering Week-2013
    • Burning Fat
    • Camera
    • Cancer
    • caner treatment
    • Cars
    • central nervous system
    • common diseases
    • Computer
    • Cricket News
    • CSK News
    • Dengue Virus
    • Dengue Virus Infection
    • Devices
    • Diabetes
    • Diabetes overview
    • Diabetes patients
    • Diet
    • Diet for Bodybuilder
    • DNA
    • DNA Replication
    • Energy
    • Essential Diet Tips
    • facebook
    • Facebook Timeline
    • Filter Blood
    • four fundamntal human tissue
    • Games
    • gift cards
    • ginger
    • Google
    • hacking
    • Health benifit
    • Healthy Breakfast
    • Healthy Breakfast Routine
    • Heart
    • Heart Failure
    • Heart Failure Video
    • Hiv
    • HIV replication
    • Host web site server
    • How to create a Google AdSense account
    • How to Earn Money on YouTube
    • How To Earn Money Online From PTC Sites ?
    • How to Get Visitors (Traffic) to Your Blog from Go...
    • How to Insert Heading Tags to Blogger Blog Posts
    • How To Make Money From Facebook?
    • How to Make Money From Google : Proven Strategy
    • How To Make Money Online on YouTube
    • How To Make Money Online With Google AdSense?
    • How to Use Post Title As Title Tag in Blogger Blog
    • human body
    • Human nervous system
    • human tissue
    • If you already have a Google AdSense account
    • iMotion
    • Indian News
    • Information
    • INTERNET
    • iPad
    • IPL News
    • Jobs
    • Kidney
    • Laptop
    • Laptops
    • LG
    • LG Nexus
    • Make money
    • Make Money Online in India : An Adsense Gameplan
    • Make Money Online in India The Hard Way
    • Make Money Online Strategy in 2013 & Beyond
    • Make more money with Google Adsense – Simple trick...
    • Making Money Online From Home Possible?
    • medical debate
    • medical science
    • Medical video
    • medicalvideo
    • medicinevideo
    • Memory Card
    • Micromax
    • Microsoft Office Access 2007
    • Microsoft Office Excel 2007
    • Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007
    • Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
    • Microsoft Office Power Point 2007
    • Microsoft Office Word 2007
    • Mobile
    • Model Diet
    • Model's Diet
    • Model's Essential Diet Tips
    • Modern Medicine
    • Muscle building Secrets
    • Nephron
    • nerve
    • nervous system
    • Nexus
    • Online Data Entry jobs in India & The Hard Reality
    • Player Diet
    • Player's Diet
    • Ptc
    • Reabsorb water
    • Reviews
    • Samsung's
    • Secret Nutrition Tips for Player
    • Security
    • Self-test
    • SEO Tips For Blogger Blogspot Blogs
    • Smartphones
    • Software
    • Solar Energy
    • Sports Nutration
    • Super Food
    • Symptoms of Brain Tumor
    • Tablet
    • Tablets
    • Technology
    • thyroid
    • thyroid diseases
    • Thyroid Test
    • Tips And Trick
    • Tools
    • Traditional Medicine
    • Traditional vs Modern Medicine
    • treatment
    • Tutorials
    • USB
    • Vehicle
    • vlc
    • Ways of cancer treatment
    • Web Development
    • webdesign
    • What is cancer
    • What it Takes to Earn Money Online in India
    • Wi-Fi
    • Wi-Fi Devices
    • Wi-Fi Printer
    • windows
    • windows 98
    • Windows Phone
    • Windows Vista
    • windows XP
    • ZTE

Bloggerized by FiyaGalito & | Powered By Movizac.com