Menu
Today Current Affairs
Today Current Affairs

Random Local News

  • La polemica per le ex troniste Enardu e per la torta con la svastica
  • 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo: The Legend Returns With 572 HP and a 198-MPH Top Speed
  • Spotted lanternfly, a crop-damaging species, may invade Michigan
  • ¿Cuarentena?: Caravana de autos volvió de Claromecó a Tres Arroyos tras pasar allí el fin de semana
  • Road worker killed in hit-and-run accident on I-94 in St. Clair Shores
  • 2021 Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat Pricing Announced, Nearly Demon Money

World News

  • Thailand rejects speculation coronavirus emerged at Bangkok’s Chatuchak Market
  • Joseph Parker vs Junior Fa LIVE RESULTS: Parker CONTROVERSY in NZ’s biggest fight in history – latest reaction
  • No. 4 Alabama Softball Opens Easton Crimson Classic with Two Wins over Memphis
  • UFC 259 Fight Card Early Odds
  • Skandal um Unicredit-Bankerin

Most Views

  • いしのようこ、志村けんさん追悼番組で「なんの現実味もなくて、気持ちが追いつかないんです」 - 872 views
  • The US patent system is not broken, so there is no need to change it - 841 views
  • 杏の離婚決意報道に『民法第709条』歌うミオヤマザキが共感「決断、絶対、大正解」 - 627 views
  • ホワイトハウス前に“黒人の命は大事” 米 - 533 views
  • John Calipari warned Johnny Juzang of outside noise when returning home, open to a return to Kentucky - 527 views
  • The Eddy Review - 524 views

Team Converts Water Into Hydrogen Fuel Using Photosynthesis

Posted on August 17, 2020 by admin

With global economic growth comes a demand for more energy. But our planet is in the brink of succumbing to the ways of our kin. Right on this scene that efficient and green energy solutions come into play.


Scientists at Israel Institute of Technology have come up with a solar-to-fuel conversion technique with record efficiency. Their idea is to implement the mechanisms of photosynthesis to push energy conversion efficiency to new heights.
Ph.D. Lilac Amirav, the principal investigator of the study says “We want to fabricate a photocatalytic system that uses sunlight to drive chemical reactions of environmental importance.” She and her group at Israel Institute of Technology are in the process of designing a photocatalyst that can strip away and isolate hydrogen from water.
SEE ALSO: SCIENTISTS DEVELOP NEW CATALYST THAT USES LIGHT TO CONVERT CARBON DIOXIDE TO FUEL
She explains “When we place our rod-shaped nanoparticles in water and shine light on them, they generate positive and negative electric charges,” and adds “The water molecules break; the negative charges produce hydrogen (reduction), and the positive charges produce oxygen (oxidation). The two reactions, involving the positive and negative charges, must take place simultaneously. Without taking advantage of the positive charges, the negative charges cannot be routed to produce the desired hydrogen”
Although, as we all know, opposites attract. If the positive and negative charges find an opportunity to merge, they rule each other out, leaving us nothing. So, keeping particles with different charge properties is necessary.
To do that, the team has devised unique heterostructures that include different semiconductors along with metal and metal oxide catalysts. They have built a model system to study the oxidation and reduction happening and optimized their heterostructures for better performance.


In a 2016 research, the same team designed another heterostructure. The cadmium-selenide quantum dot at the one end attracted positive charge while negative charge piled up on the other side.
Amirav said, “By adjusting the size of the quantum dot and the length of the rod, as well as other parameters, we achieved 100% conversion of sunlight to hydrogen from water reduction.” In this system, one single photocatalyst nanoparticle could put out 360,000 hydrogen molecules per hour.
But in this older study, only the reduction part of the reaction was studied. For a functioning solar-to-fuel converter, we need to handle the other part, oxidation, as well. Amirav remarks “We were not converting solar energy into fuel yet,” and elaborates, “We still needed an oxidation reaction that would continually provide electrons to the quantum dot.”
It’s a significant challenge to walk through the water oxidation process because it has multiple steps. Also, the byproducts of the reactions skew with the outcome by compromising the stability of the semiconductor.
In their latest study, they have gone with a different approach. This time, instead of water they utilized a compound called benzylamine for the oxidation part. This way water reduces to hydrogen and oxygen while benzylamine gets converted to benzaldehyde. The U.S. Dept. of Energy defines 5 to 10 percent as the “practical feasibility threshold”. The maximum efficiency of this method was benchmarked at 4.2%.
The researchers are looking to other compounds that may prove viable for solar-to-chemical conversion. With AI on their side, they are searching for compounds that’d be a good fit for this process. Amirav notes that this process has been fruitful so far.
The results of the study will be presented at the Fall 2020 Meeting and Expo held by the American Chemical Society (virtually, of course).

world

Links

Autel AL319 OBDII & CAN Code Reader
Launch car diagnostic tool X431 v+
Autel MaxiDiag MD806 Pro Automotive Car Diagnostic Scanner
Autel Diagnostic Tool MaxiCOM MK908P
Autel MaxiIM IM608
Autel maxisys elite
Autel Maxicom MK908p
Autel TPMS Programming Tool - TS601
Topdon Car Battery Tester 12V Load Tester

Tags

2021 Accident Analysis Arsenal F.C. Borussia Dortmund Bundesliga China Coronavirus Democratic Party Donald Trump Enterprise FC Barcelona FC Bayern Munich Finance Forecasting Germany Health Care Industry Instagram Israel Joe Biden Liverpool F.C. Market analysis Market research Market share NBA Netflix NFL Paris Saint-Germain F.C. PlayStation 4 Premier League Protest Report Research Russia Serie A Stock Student System Tennis Turkey UEFA Champions League United Kingdom United States Vietnam