.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cSince the discovery of the photovoltaic effect by Edmond Becquerel in 1839, conversion of solar energy into electrical power or chemical fuel has captured the interest and imagination of scientists. Solar energy is considered the most promising of the clean and renewable energy today,\u201d said Mohammad Qureshi, a professor at IIT Guwahati\u2019s chemistry department.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe commonly known solar cells convert light directly into electrical energy. There is another type of sunlight-powered energy conversion system called PhotoElectroChemical (PEC) cells that have elicited attention in recent times due to their direct production of fuels in combination with electrical energy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Qureshi explained that PEC cells use solar energy to split simple and safe compounds such as water into hydrogen and oxygen.<\/p>\n
With hydrogen being a high-energy fuel that can be stored and used as needed, these cells are therefore considered the \u2018Holy Grail\u2019 of a carbon-free hydrogen economy.<\/p>\n
Despite the promise, PEC cells are not yet a practical solution to the energy crisis because of scientific bottlenecks such as the sluggishness of the water-oxidation process.<\/p>\n
\u201cCatalysts are used to activate the water-splitting process. These catalysts are expensive metals such as platinum, iridium and ruthenium, among others, which render the cells impractical,\u201d Qureshi said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have developed a ternary catalyst that comprises cobalt-tin layered double hydroxides and bismuth vanadate, which forms a p-n junction semiconductor with graphene bridges. We have shown that the catalyst, when used as a photoanode, can split water easily to produce hydrogen and oxygen,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Another member of the research team, Suhaib Alam, explained that when light falls on the anode of a PEC cell, negatively charged electrons and positively charged holes are generated (excitons).<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the absence of a catalyst, the thermodynamic barrier will be very high to overcome, hence cannot split the water into hydrogen and oxygen. We are now in the process of developing a prototype device to test their photoanode in practical PEC cells,\u201d Alam added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi, Oct 25 (PTI): Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati, are developing cost-effective novel materials that can use sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. With hydrogen being a clean, high-energy fuel that can be stored and used as needed, the development can lead to a carbon-free hydrogen economy. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-175115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-national"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}