Clean Fuel Breakthrough Turns Water Into Hydrogen at Room Temperature
Scientists have described a relatively simple method involving aluminum nanoparticles that are able to strip the oxygen from water molecules and leave hydrogen gas.
The process yields large amounts of hydrogen, and it all works at room temperature.
That removes one of the big barriers to hydrogen fuel production: the large amounts of power required to produce it using existing methods.
This technique works with any kind of water, too, including wastewater and ocean water.
"We don't need any energy input, and it bubbles hydrogen like crazy," says materials scientist Scott Oliver from the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC).
"I've never seen anything like it."
Key to the process is the use of gallium metal to enable an ongoing reaction with the water. This aluminum-gallium-water reaction has been known about for decades, but here the team optimized and enhanced it in a few particular ways.
