• 278 days Will The ECB Continue To Hike Rates?
  • 278 days Forbes: Aramco Remains Largest Company In The Middle East
  • 280 days Caltech Scientists Succesfully Beam Back Solar Power From Space
  • 680 days Could Crypto Overtake Traditional Investment?
  • 684 days Americans Still Quitting Jobs At Record Pace
  • 686 days FinTech Startups Tapping VC Money for ‘Immigrant Banking’
  • 689 days Is The Dollar Too Strong?
  • 690 days Big Tech Disappoints Investors on Earnings Calls
  • 691 days Fear And Celebration On Twitter as Musk Takes The Reins
  • 692 days China Is Quietly Trying To Distance Itself From Russia
  • 693 days Tech and Internet Giants’ Earnings In Focus After Netflix’s Stinker
  • 697 days Crypto Investors Won Big In 2021
  • 697 days The ‘Metaverse’ Economy Could be Worth $13 Trillion By 2030
  • 698 days Food Prices Are Skyrocketing As Putin’s War Persists
  • 700 days Pentagon Resignations Illustrate Our ‘Commercial’ Defense Dilemma
  • 700 days US Banks Shrug off Nearly $15 Billion In Russian Write-Offs
  • 704 days Cannabis Stocks in Holding Pattern Despite Positive Momentum
  • 704 days Is Musk A Bastion Of Free Speech Or Will His Absolutist Stance Backfire?
  • 705 days Two ETFs That Could Hedge Against Extreme Market Volatility
  • 707 days Are NFTs About To Take Over Gaming?
Mining.com

Mining.com

Mining.com

MINING.com is a web-based global mining publication focusing on news and commentary about mining and mineral exploration. The site is a one-stop-shop for mining industry…

Contact Author

  1. Home
  2. Commodities
  3. Other

Cobalt May Be The Key To Clean Hydrogen Fuel

Hydrogen

A research team from the Tokyo Institute of Technology created the first visible-light photoanode made of titanium dioxide or TiO2 enhanced with cobalt. The anode is a key element needed to achieve affordable water splitting to produce hydrogen, a clean alternative to fossil fuel.

In a paper published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, the researchers explain that photoelectrochemical water splitting, the process by which light energy is used to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen is a promising approach to obtain pure hydrogen for use as an alternative clean fuel.

The process is carried out in electrochemical cells that contain an anode and a cathode submerged in water, which are connected through an external circuit. At the anode, water oxidation occurs, whereby O2 is produced by drawing energy from light waves. These waves transfer energy to the electrons of the anode material, allowing them to move through the external circuit to reach the cathode. Here, the received electrons and the cathode material cause H2 to form.

According to the team, to date, it has been difficult to find photoelectrochemical systems that carry this process efficiently. One of the reasons for this is that titanium dioxide, which is a well-known and widely used photoanode material, can only absorb energy from high-energy light.

Sometimes, TiO2 is mixed with gold and silver to sensitize it to visible light but, as a result, the application becomes expensive.

However, by enhancing the TiO2 with cobalt, it is possible to create a visible-light photoanode.

To do so, thin TiO2 films are grown onto a substrate through a standard procedure and then cobalt is introduced by immersing them into an aqueous cobalt nitrate solution.

This method works because cobalt domains not only capture visible light and transfer charges or electrons at the TiO2 interface but also serve as catalytic sites that facilitate water oxidation.

Moreover, the researchers found that the structure of the base TiO2 thin film affects the performance of the final modified photoanode, presumably by allowing for the accommodation of cobalt atoms. The structure of the TiO2 film can be easily tuned by adjusting fabrication parameters, which allowed the team to carry out multiple tests to gain insight into this phenomenon.

“This study demonstrates that a visible-light-driven photoelectrochemical cell for water oxidation can be constructed through the use of earth-abundant metals without the need for complicated preparation procedures,” Kazuhiko Maeda, senior author of the study, said in a media statement.

By Mining.com 

More Top Reads From Safehaven.com:

Back to homepage

Leave a comment

Leave a comment