VATIS UPDATE Article

Researchers from the University of Central Florida (UCF), the United States, have developed an inexpensive method to extract hydrogen from seawater, which could result in a more efficient way to power fuel cells. The team has developed a new hybrid nanomaterial that harnesses solar energy to generate hydrogen from seawater that could be used for a new source of clean-burning fuel, while easing the demand for fossil fuels.

“We’ve opened a new window to splitting real water, not just ­purified water in a lab,” said Dr. Yang Yang, at UCF. The researchers used a photocatalyst – a material that spurs a chemical reaction using energy from light – durable enough to handle the biomass and corrosive salt of seawater. To achieve this, they used a catalyst that was able to not only harvest a much broader spectrum of light than other materials but also stand up to the harsh conditions of seawater.

Yang fabricated a photocatalyst composed of a hybrid material where tiny nanocavities were chemically etched onto the surface of an ultrathin film of titanium dioxide – the most common photocatalyst. The nanocavity indentations were coated with nanoflakes of molybdenum disulfide – a 2D material with the thickness of a single atom. The new catalyst is able to significantly boost the bandwidth of light that can be harvested.