University of Central Florida (UCF) researcher Yang Yang has come up with a new hybrid nanomaterial that harnesses solar energy and uses it to generate hydrogen from seawater more cheaply and efficiently than current materials.
The breakthrough could one day lead to a new source of the clean-burning fuel, ease demand for fossil fuels and boost the economy of Florida, where sunshine and seawater are ample.
Yang, an assistant professor with joint appointments in the UCF’s NanoScience Technology Center and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has been working on solar hydrogen splitting for nearly 10 years.
It’s done using a photocatalyst – a material that spurs a chemical reaction using energy from light. When he began his research, Yang focused on using solar energy to extract hydrogen from purified water. It’s a much more difficult task with seawater; the photocatalysts needed aren’t durable enough to handle its biomass and corrosive salt.
The report is published in the journal Energy & Environmental Science.
Yang and his research team have developed a new catalyst that’s able to not only harvest a much broader spectrum of light than other materials but also stand up to the harsh conditions found in seawater.
“We’ve opened a new window to splitting real water, not just purified water in a lab,” Yang said. “This really works well in seawater.”
The researcher developed a method of fabricating a photocatalyst composed of a hybrid material. Tiny nanocavities were chemically etched onto the surface of an ultrathin film of titanium dioxide, the most common photocatalyst. Those nanocavity indentations were coated with nanoflakes of molybdenum disulphide, a two-dimensional material with the thickness of a single atom.
University of Central Florida (UCF) researcher Yang Yang has come up with a new hybrid nanomaterial that harnesses solar energy and uses it to generate hydrogen from seawater more cheaply and efficiently than current materials.
The breakthrough could one day lead to a new source of the clean-burning fuel, ease demand for fossil fuels and boost the economy of Florida, where sunshine and seawater are ample.
Yang, an assistant professor with joint appointments in the UCF’s NanoScience Technology Center and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has been working on solar hydrogen splitting for nearly 10 years.
It’s done using a photocatalyst – a material that spurs a chemical reaction using energy from light. When he began his research, Yang focused on using solar energy to extract hydrogen from purified water. It’s a much more difficult task with seawater; the photocatalysts needed aren’t durable enough to handle its biomass and corrosive salt.
The report is published in the journal Energy & Environmental Science.
Yang and his research team have developed a new catalyst that’s able to not only harvest a much broader spectrum of light than other materials but also stand up to the harsh conditions found in seawater.
“We’ve opened a new window to splitting real water, not just purified water in a lab,” Yang said. “This really works well in seawater.”
The researcher developed a method of fabricating a photocatalyst composed of a hybrid material. Tiny nanocavities were chemically etched onto the surface of an ultrathin film of titanium dioxide, the most common photocatalyst. Those nanocavity indentations were coated with nanoflakes of molybdenum disulphide, a two-dimensional material with the thickness of a single atom.
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