MAterials Scientists Use Waste to Turn Water Into Hydrogen Fuel

March 12th, 2010

Materials scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are working on a system that uses small amounts of otherwise waste energy to convert water into hydrogen fuel. The process is simple and recycles waste that wouldn’t be used ordinarily.

“This study provides a simple and cost-effective technology for direct water splitting that may generate hydrogen fuels by scavenging energy wastes such as noise or stray vibrations from the environment,” the authors write in a new paper, published March 2 in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. “This new discovery may have potential implications in solving the challenging energy and environmental issues that we are facing today and in the future.”

IF you understand this next part then you are a better man, and obviously quite a better woman (I’m male), than I am. I can probably use a dip bar more efficiently than you though.

The researchers, led by UW-Madison geologist and crystal specialist Huifang Xu, grew nanocrystals of two common crystals, zinc oxide and barium titanate, and placed them in water. When pulsed with ultrasonic vibrations, the nanofibers flexed and catalyzed a chemical reaction to split the water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.