Researchers from the University of Houston have found a catalyst that generates hydrogen from water using sunlight, a development with the potential to create a renewable source of energy. Their research involved the use of cobalt oxide nanoparticles to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
Jiming Bao, lead author, said photocatalytic water-splitting experiments have been tried since the 1970s, but this was the first to use cobalt oxide and the first to use neutral water under visible light at a high energy conversion efficiency without co-catalysts or sacrificial chemicals.
Read the complete article published by The Engineer, 16 December 2013