Since the 1970s, producing hydrogen by splitting water with solar energy has been the Holy Grail for chemistry researchers. (image: Kobizmedia/Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Sep. 24 (Korea Bizwire) – A Korean research team has succeeded in developing a new nanotechnology material to split water using solar energy. The research project, sponsored by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, was led by Prof. Park Jong-hyeok of SungKyunKwan University and Kim Jong-kyu of Postech as well as Xinjian Shi, and Choi Il-yong and other as coauthors.
The research findings were reported on the September 2, 2014 edition of Nature Communications in an article titled “Efficient photoelectrochemical hydrogen production from bismuth vanadate-decorated tungsten trioxide helix nanostructures.”
Since the 1970s, producing hydrogen by splitting water with solar energy has been the Holy Grail for chemistry researchers. The currently available technology falls short of producing hydrogen at the rate of only 3 percent, which is far short of making hydrogen in industrial quantities. The researchers have improved the yield up to 6 percent by using a material coated with bismuth vanadate as a photocatalyst. This is more than ten times more hydrogen based on a process using titanium metallic oxides as a catalyst.
By Sean Chung (schung10@koreabizwire.com)
