Researchers in the College of Science have developed a new family of materials that use light to produce hydrogen from water, opening the door to new ways of converting the sun’s rays into clean energy.
A collaboration led by chemist Kyriakos Stylianou, created a photocatalyst that enables the high-speed, high-efficiency production of hydrogen, used in fuel cells for cars as well as in the manufacture of many chemicals including ammonia, in the refining of metals and in making plastics.
A catalyst is a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without itself undergoing any permanent chemical change, Stylianou said. Photocatalysts are materials that absorb light to reach a higher energy level and can use that energy to speed up reactions.
The findings, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, introduce a potential new tool to use against greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, said Stylianou, whose research focuses on crystalline, porous materials known as metal organic frameworks, or MOFs.
Made up of positively charged metal ions surrounded by organic “linker” molecules, MOFs have nanosized pores and tunable structural properties. They can be designed with a variety of components that determine the MOF’s properties, and there are millions of possible MOFs, Stylianou said.
Almost 100,000 of them have been synthesized by chemistry researchers, and the properties of another half-million have been predicted.
