Scientists from Trinity College Dublin have taken a giant stride towards solving a riddle that would provide the world with entirely renewable, clean energy from which water would be the only waste product.
Scientists from Trinity College Dublin have taken a giant stride towards solving a riddle that would provide the world with entirely renewable, clean energy from which water would be the only waste product.
Reducing humanity’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is arguably the greatest challenge facing 21stcentury civilisation – especially given the ever-increasing global population and the heightened energy demands that come with it.
One beacon of hope is the idea that we could use renewable electricity to split water (H2O) to produce energy-rich hydrogen (H2), which could then be stored and used in fuel cells. This is an especially interesting prospect in a situation where wind and solar energy sources produce electricity to split water, as this would allow us to store energy for use when those renewable sources are not available.
The essential problem, however, is that water is very stable and requires a great deal of energy to break up. A particularly major hurdle to clear is the energy or “overpotential” associated with the production of oxygen, which is the bottleneck reaction in splitting water to produce H2.
Read more at Trinity College Dublin
Image: L to R, Professor Max Garcia-Melchor and Ph.D. Candidate, Michael Craig, Trinity College Dublin, searching for the 'green bullet' catalyst. (Credit: Trinity College Dublin)
