Discovery

It was published in Science Daily that Penn State researchers have a proof-of-concept device that can split water and produce recoverable hydrogen.

Thomas E. Mallouk, the DuPont Professor of Materials Chemistry and Physics said, if we can achieve catalytic systems with 10 to 15 percent solar conversion efficiency, water photolysis would provide a clean source of hydrogen fuel from water and sunlight.

Craig Grimes, professor of electrical engineering at Penn State, also develop solar hydrogen cells. But he noticed that, even solar cells can now produce electricity from visible light at efficiencies of greater than 10 percent, it have been limited by the poor spectral response of the semiconductors used.

Researchers then develop a catalyst system that can mimic the electron transfer and water oxidation processes that occur in plants during photosynthesis. The key to their process is a tiny complex of molecules with a center catalyst of iridium oxide molecules surrounded by orange-red dye molecules.

Until now, the researchers are still trying to investigate improving the efficiency of the dye, improving the catalyst and adjusting the general geometry of the system.