Solar Paint Offers Endless Energy From Water Vapour
June 16, 2017 | RMIT UniversityEstimated reading time: 1 minute
Researchers have developed a solar paint that can absorb water vapour and split it to generate hydrogen – the cleanest source of energy.
Distinguished Professor Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh and Dr Torben Daeneke with a pot of solar paint and a piece of glass with the paint applied.
The paint contains a newly developed compound that acts like silica gel, which is used in sachets to absorb moisture and keep food, medicines and electronics fresh and dry. But unlike silica gel, the new material, synthetic molybdenum-sulphide, also acts as a semi-conductor and catalyses the splitting of water atoms into hydrogen and oxygen.
RMIT lead researcher Dr Torben Daeneke said: “We found that mixing the compound with titanium oxide particles leads to a sunlight-absorbing paint that produces hydrogen fuel from solar energy and moist air.
“Titanium oxide is the white pigment that is already commonly used in wall paint, meaning that the simple addition of the new material can convert a brick wall into energy harvesting and fuel production real estate.
“Our new development has a big range of advantages,” he said. “There’s no need for clean or filtered water to feed the system. Any place that has water vapour in the air, even remote areas far from water, can produce fuel.”
His colleague, Distinguished Professor Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh, said hydrogen was the cleanest source of energy and could be used in fuel cells as well as conventional combustion engines as an alternative to fossil fuels.
“This system can also be used in very dry but hot climates near oceans. The sea water is evaporated by the hot sunlight and the vapour can then be absorbed to produce fuel.
“This is an extraordinary concept – making fuel from the sun and water vapour in the air.”
The research has been published as “Surface Water Dependent Properties of Sulfur Rich Molybdenum Sulphides – Electrolyteless Gas Phase Water Splitting” in ACS Nano, a journal of the American Chemical Society.
Related video:
Suggested Items
D Coupon Testing and Data Insights With GreenSource Fabrication
04/17/2024 | Marcy LaRont, PCB007 MagazineMarcy LaRont spoke with Steve Karas of GreenSource Fabrication at the SMTA UHDI conference in March. He presented a case study that GreenSource undertook with a customer on critical via reliability with advanced materials and used the experience to highlight the importance and effectiveness of D coupon testing. He also discussed GreenSource’s approach to data aggregation and a new system they developed to use collected data effectively.
IPC Publishes Comprehensive Strategy to Address Electronics Industry’s Global Workforce Challenge
04/10/2024 | IPCOne of the most difficult and urgent challenges facing the electronics industry is a chronic shortage of adequately skilled workers. Today, IPC unveiled an expansion of its strategy to address the workforce challenges of the U.S. electronics manufacturing industry and called on its more than 3,000 member companies to join in the effort.
UHDI Fundamentals: ASC Sponsors Ultra High Density Interconnect Symposium
03/21/2024 | Anaya Vardya, American Standard CircuitsAmerican Standard Circuits (ASC) is a major sponsor of an upcoming symposium on one of the most talked about new technologies that has come along in quite a while: ultra high density interconnect (UHDI).
onsemi Aligns Business Groups to Expand Product Portfolio and Accelerate Growth
03/13/2024 | onsemionsemi announced the formation of the Analog and Mixed-Signal Group (AMG) which will be led by newly appointed group president, Sudhir Gopalswamy.
Indium Corporation Experts to Present at SEMI THERM
03/07/2024 | Indium CorporationIndium Corporation Global Account Manager and Senior Thermal Technologist Tim Jensen and Product Development Specialist for Thermal Interface Materials Miloš Lazić will present on thermal interface material (TIM) technology at SEMI-THERM, taking place March 25–28 in San Jose, California, U.S.