What happens when electrons get wet?

31-Jan-2018 - There's a particular set of chemical reactions that governs many of the processes around us--everything from bridges corroding in water to your breakfast breaking down in your gut. One crucial part of that reaction involves electrons striking water, and despite how commonplace this reaction is, ...

New catalyst for hydrogen production is a step toward clean fuel

18-Jan-2018 - A nanostructured composite material developed at UC Santa Cruz has shown impressive performance as a catalyst for the electrochemical splitting of water to produce hydrogen. An efficient, low-cost catalyst is essential for realizing the promise of hydrogen as a clean, environmentally friendly ...

New nanomaterial can extract hydrogen fuel from seawater

06-Oct-2017 - It's possible to produce hydrogen to power fuel cells by extracting the gas from seawater, but the electricity required to do it makes the process costly. UCF researcher Yang Yang has come up with a new hybrid nanomaterial that harnesses solar energy and uses it to generate hydrogen from seawater ...

A new way to produce clean hydrogen fuel from water using sunlight

06-Oct-2017 - Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, and is considered by many to be a potential clean fuel of the future. Water and fossil fuels contain large amounts of hydrogen, but unlocking molecular dihydrogen fuel from these sources takes a great deal of energy, casting doubt over any ...

Liquid-metal membrane technology to make hydrogen fuel cell vehicles viable

31-Aug-2017 - While cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells offer clear advantages over the electric vehicles that are growing in popularity (including their longer range, their lower overall environmental impact, and the fact that they can be refueled in minutes, versus hours of charging time), they have yet to ...

Grant focuses on 'hydrogen sponge' for use in fuel-cell vehicles

16-Jun-2017 - Finding practical hydrogen storage technologies for vehicles powered by fuel cells is the focus of a $682,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, awarded to Mike Chung, professor of materials science and engineering, Penn State. Chung's recent research on superabsorbent polymers, which ...

Ultrathin material for water splitting made of non-precious metals

Making production of hydrogen fuel more cost efficient

07-Jun-2017 - UNSW Sydney chemists have invented a new, cheap catalyst for splitting water with an electrical current to efficiently produce clean hydrogen fuel. The technology is based on the creation of ultrathin slices of porous metal-organic complex materials coated onto a foam electrode, which the ...

Low cost, scalable water-splitting fuels the future hydrogen economy

06-Jun-2017 - The "clean-energy economy" always seems a few steps away but never quite here. Fossil fuels still power transportation, heating and cooling, and manufacturing, but a team of scientists from Penn State and Florida State University have come one step closer to inexpensive, clean hydrogen fuel with ...

New technology generates power from polluted air

09-May-2017 - Researchers from the University of Antwerp and KU Leuven (University of Leuven), Belgium, have succeeded in developing a process that purifies air and, at the same time, generates power. The device must only be exposed to light in order to function. "We use a small device with two rooms separated ...

Water, water, nowhere

08-May-2017 - Hydrogen powered fuel cell cars, developed by almost every major car manufacturer, are ideal zero-emissions vehicles because they produce only water as exhaust. However, their reliability is limited because the fuel cell relies upon a membrane that only functions in when enough water is present, ...