well i looked through the science article and also found this analysis from science regarding this "solar revolution"
as usual the MSM press release overhyped but it is a step in the right direction....
as you need to be able to find cheap catalysts.....platinum will never be feasible on a large scale....
as well as find catalysts that will perform at a neutral pH vs. harsh environment high or low pH.....
----------------------------------------------------
Unfortunately, cobalt is useless as a
standalone water-splitting anode because it
dissolves in water. Nocera and his Ph.D. student
Matthew Kanan knew they couldn’t get
over this hurdle. So they went around it
instead. For their anode, they started with a
stable electrode material known as indium tin
oxide (ITO). They then placed their anode in
a beaker of water, which they spiked with
cobalt (Co2+) and potassium phosphate.
When they flipped on the current, this created
a positive charge in the ITO. Kanan and
Nocera believe this initially pulls electrons
from the Co2+, turning it first to Co3+, which
pairs up with negatively charged phosphate
ions and precipitates out of solution, forming
a film of rocklike cobalt phosphate atop
the ITO. Another electron is yanked from the
Co3+ in the film to make Co4+, although the
mechanism has not yet been nailed down.
The film forms the critical water-splitting
catalyst. As it does so, it swipes electrons
from hydrogen atoms in water and then grabs
hold of lone oxygen atoms and welds them
together. In the process, the Co4+ returns to
Co2+ and again dissolves into the water, and
the cycle is repeated.
The catalyst isn’t perfect. It still requires
excess electricity to start the water-splitting
reaction, energy that isn’t recovered and
stored in the fuel. And for now, the catalyst
can accept only low levels of electrical current.
Nocera says he’s hopeful that both problems
can be solved, and because the catalysts
are so easy to make, he expects progress will
be swift. Further work is also needed to
reduce the cost of cathodes and to link the
electrodes to solar cells to provide clean electricity.
A final big push will be to see if the
catalyst or others like it can operate in seawater.
If so, future societies could use sunlight
to generate hydrogen from seawater and
then pipe it to large banks of fuel cells on
shore that could convert it into electricity and
fresh water, thereby using the sun and oceans
to fill two of the world’s greatest needs.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Scientists mimic essence of plants' energy storage system
Anne Trafton, News Office
July 31, 2008
In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn't shine.
Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is prohibitively expensive and grossly inefficient. With today's announcement, MIT researchers have hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy.
Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: the sun. "This is the nirvana of what we've been talking about for years," said MIT's Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT and senior author of a paper describing the work in the July 31 issue of Science. "Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon."
Inspired by the photosynthesis performed by plants, Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera's lab, have developed an unprecedented process that will allow the sun's energy to be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later, the oxygen and hydrogen may be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power your house or your electric car, day or night.
The key component in Nocera and Kanan's new process is a new catalyst that produces oxygen gas from water; another catalyst produces valuable hydrogen gas. The new catalyst consists of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrode, placed in water. When electricity -- whether from a photovoltaic cell, a wind turbine or any other source -- runs through the electrode, the cobalt and phosphate form a thin film on the electrode, and oxygen gas is produced.
Combined with another catalyst, such as platinum, that can produce hydrogen gas from water, the system can duplicate the water splitting reaction that occurs during photosynthesis.
The new catalyst works at room temperature, in neutral pH water, and it's easy to set up, Nocera said. "That's why I know this is going to work. It's so easy to implement," he said.
'Giant leap' for clean energy
Sunlight has the greatest potential of any power source to solve the world's energy problems, said Nocera. In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet's energy needs for one year.
James Barber, a leader in the study of photosynthesis who was not involved in this research, called the discovery by Nocera and Kanan a "giant leap" toward generating clean, carbon-free energy on a massive scale.
"This is a major discovery with enormous implications for the future prosperity of humankind," said Barber, the Ernst Chain Professor of Biochemistry at Imperial College London. "The importance of their discovery cannot be overstated since it opens up the door for developing new technologies for energy production thus reducing our dependence for fossil fuels and addressing the global climate change problem."
'Just the beginning'
Currently available electrolyzers, which split water with electricity and are often used industrially, are not suited for artificial photosynthesis because they are very expensive and require a highly basic (non-benign) environment that has little to do with the conditions under which photosynthesis operates.
More engineering work needs to be done to integrate the new scientific discovery into existing photovoltaic systems, but Nocera said he is confident that such systems will become a reality.
"This is just the beginning," said Nocera, principal investigator for the Solar Revolution Project funded by the Chesonis Family Foundation and co-Director of the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Center. "The scientific community is really going to run with this."
Nocera hopes that within 10 years, homeowners will be able to power their homes in daylight through photovoltaic cells, while using excess solar energy to produce hydrogen and oxygen to power their own household fuel cell. Electricity-by-wire from a central source could be a thing of the past.
The project is part of the MIT Energy Initiative, a program designed to help transform the global energy system to meet the needs of the future and to help build a bridge to that future by improving today's energy systems. MITEI Director Ernest Moniz, Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems, noted that "this discovery in the Nocera lab demonstrates that moving up the transformation of our energy supply system to one based on renewables will depend heavily on frontier basic science."
The success of the Nocera lab shows the impact of a mixture of funding sources - governments, philanthropy, and industry. This project was funded by the National Science Foundation and by the Chesonis Family Foundation, which gave MIT $10 million this spring to launch the Solar Revolution Project, with a goal to make the large scale deployment of solar energy within 10 years.
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as usual the MSM press release overhyped but it is a step in the right direction....
as you need to be able to find cheap catalysts.....platinum will never be feasible on a large scale....
as well as find catalysts that will perform at a neutral pH vs. harsh environment high or low pH.....
----------------------------------------------------
Unfortunately, cobalt is useless as a
standalone water-splitting anode because it
dissolves in water. Nocera and his Ph.D. student
Matthew Kanan knew they couldn’t get
over this hurdle. So they went around it
instead. For their anode, they started with a
stable electrode material known as indium tin
oxide (ITO). They then placed their anode in
a beaker of water, which they spiked with
cobalt (Co2+) and potassium phosphate.
When they flipped on the current, this created
a positive charge in the ITO. Kanan and
Nocera believe this initially pulls electrons
from the Co2+, turning it first to Co3+, which
pairs up with negatively charged phosphate
ions and precipitates out of solution, forming
a film of rocklike cobalt phosphate atop
the ITO. Another electron is yanked from the
Co3+ in the film to make Co4+, although the
mechanism has not yet been nailed down.
The film forms the critical water-splitting
catalyst. As it does so, it swipes electrons
from hydrogen atoms in water and then grabs
hold of lone oxygen atoms and welds them
together. In the process, the Co4+ returns to
Co2+ and again dissolves into the water, and
the cycle is repeated.
The catalyst isn’t perfect. It still requires
excess electricity to start the water-splitting
reaction, energy that isn’t recovered and
stored in the fuel. And for now, the catalyst
can accept only low levels of electrical current.
Nocera says he’s hopeful that both problems
can be solved, and because the catalysts
are so easy to make, he expects progress will
be swift. Further work is also needed to
reduce the cost of cathodes and to link the
electrodes to solar cells to provide clean electricity.
A final big push will be to see if the
catalyst or others like it can operate in seawater.
If so, future societies could use sunlight
to generate hydrogen from seawater and
then pipe it to large banks of fuel cells on
shore that could convert it into electricity and
fresh water, thereby using the sun and oceans
to fill two of the world’s greatest needs.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Scientists mimic essence of plants' energy storage system
Anne Trafton, News Office
July 31, 2008
In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn't shine.
Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is prohibitively expensive and grossly inefficient. With today's announcement, MIT researchers have hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy.
Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: the sun. "This is the nirvana of what we've been talking about for years," said MIT's Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT and senior author of a paper describing the work in the July 31 issue of Science. "Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon."
Inspired by the photosynthesis performed by plants, Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera's lab, have developed an unprecedented process that will allow the sun's energy to be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later, the oxygen and hydrogen may be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power your house or your electric car, day or night.
The key component in Nocera and Kanan's new process is a new catalyst that produces oxygen gas from water; another catalyst produces valuable hydrogen gas. The new catalyst consists of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrode, placed in water. When electricity -- whether from a photovoltaic cell, a wind turbine or any other source -- runs through the electrode, the cobalt and phosphate form a thin film on the electrode, and oxygen gas is produced.
Combined with another catalyst, such as platinum, that can produce hydrogen gas from water, the system can duplicate the water splitting reaction that occurs during photosynthesis.
The new catalyst works at room temperature, in neutral pH water, and it's easy to set up, Nocera said. "That's why I know this is going to work. It's so easy to implement," he said.
'Giant leap' for clean energy
Sunlight has the greatest potential of any power source to solve the world's energy problems, said Nocera. In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet's energy needs for one year.
James Barber, a leader in the study of photosynthesis who was not involved in this research, called the discovery by Nocera and Kanan a "giant leap" toward generating clean, carbon-free energy on a massive scale.
"This is a major discovery with enormous implications for the future prosperity of humankind," said Barber, the Ernst Chain Professor of Biochemistry at Imperial College London. "The importance of their discovery cannot be overstated since it opens up the door for developing new technologies for energy production thus reducing our dependence for fossil fuels and addressing the global climate change problem."
'Just the beginning'
Currently available electrolyzers, which split water with electricity and are often used industrially, are not suited for artificial photosynthesis because they are very expensive and require a highly basic (non-benign) environment that has little to do with the conditions under which photosynthesis operates.
More engineering work needs to be done to integrate the new scientific discovery into existing photovoltaic systems, but Nocera said he is confident that such systems will become a reality.
"This is just the beginning," said Nocera, principal investigator for the Solar Revolution Project funded by the Chesonis Family Foundation and co-Director of the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Center. "The scientific community is really going to run with this."
Nocera hopes that within 10 years, homeowners will be able to power their homes in daylight through photovoltaic cells, while using excess solar energy to produce hydrogen and oxygen to power their own household fuel cell. Electricity-by-wire from a central source could be a thing of the past.
The project is part of the MIT Energy Initiative, a program designed to help transform the global energy system to meet the needs of the future and to help build a bridge to that future by improving today's energy systems. MITEI Director Ernest Moniz, Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems, noted that "this discovery in the Nocera lab demonstrates that moving up the transformation of our energy supply system to one based on renewables will depend heavily on frontier basic science."
The success of the Nocera lab shows the impact of a mixture of funding sources - governments, philanthropy, and industry. This project was funded by the National Science Foundation and by the Chesonis Family Foundation, which gave MIT $10 million this spring to launch the Solar Revolution Project, with a goal to make the large scale deployment of solar energy within 10 years.
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