Cheap source of energy: Cell splits water via sunlight to produce hydrogen

Engineers at Washington University in St. Louis have developed a unique photocatalytic cell that splits water to produce hydrogen and oxygen in water using sunlight and the power of a nanostructured catalyst.

Pratim Biswas, Ph.D., the Stifel and Quinette Jens Professor and Chair of the Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, and his graduate student Elijah Thimsen, recently have developed the well-controlled, gas phase process, and have demonstrated it for synthesizing a variety of oxide semiconductors such as iron and titanium dioxide films in a single step process. It is based on a simple, inexpensive flame aerosol reactor (FLAR) and consists of four mass flow controllers to regulate process gases, a standard bubbler to deliver a precursor, a metal tube that acts as a burner and a water-cooled substrate holder.

“We put these films in water and they promote some reactions that split water into hydrogen and oxygen,” said Biswas

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