Alloy Could Produce Hydrogen Fuel Using Sunlight 360
intellitech writes "Using state-of-the-art theoretical computations, a University of Kentucky-University of Louisville team demonstrated that an alloy formed by a 2 percent substitution of antimony (Sb) in gallium nitride (GaN) has the right electrical properties to enable solar light energy to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, a process known as photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. When the alloy is immersed in water and exposed to sunlight, the chemical bond between the hydrogen and oxygen molecules in water is broken (abstract). Because pure hydrogen gas is not found in free abundance on Earth, it must be manufactured by unlocking it from other compounds. Thus, hydrogen is not considered an energy source, but rather an 'energy carrier.' Currently, it takes a large amount of electricity to generate hydrogen by water splitting. As a consequence, most of the hydrogen manufactured today is derived from non-renewable sources such as coal and natural gas. The team says the GaN-Sb alloy has the potential to convert solar energy into an economical, carbon-free source for hydrogen."
Re:Containment (Score:5, Funny)
Wanted: monovalent to occupy vacant orbital. It's a quad, but the other three spots are spoken for. If you are an H, we'll be an alkane. If you're a hydroxyl, we'll be an alcohol.
Re:Access to energy is social justice (Score:5, Funny)
Really? I work about 90 hours a week, and haven't had a single week actually "off" in about ten years.
Selfish bastard. You could share some of that work, there's enough to do for two or three people there.
Re:So, no current needed? (Score:5, Funny)
Nothing quite beats the misery of walking out of a nice, 296 Kelvin mall into the blistering, 310 Kelvin heat in the summer time, only to sit down in your 344 Kelvin car, cursing and swearing at all that damned free energy the sun packed into your car.
Fixed that for you. It's 21st century already.