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New Molecule Able to Harness Entire Visible Spectrum

posted by Fnord666 on Friday January 24 2020, @03:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the just-add-oxygen dept.

RandomFactor writes:

Researchers at Ohio State University have published details in the journal Nature Chemistry on a molecule that efficiently absorbs light across the visible spectrum (and into both the ultraviolet and infrared) and catalyzes the production of Hydrogen.

The scientists demonstrate

a new, air-stable bimetallic scaffold that acts as a single-chromophore photocatalyst for hydrogen-gas generation and operates with irradiation wavelengths that span the ultraviolet to the red/near-infrared. Irradiation in acidic solutions that contain an electron donor results in the catalytic production of hydrogen with 170 ± 5 turnovers in 24 hours and an initial rate of 28 turnovers per hour. The catalysis proceeds through two stepwise excited-state redox events—atypical of the currently known homogeneous photocatalysis—and features the storage of multiple redox equivalents on a dirhodium catalyst enabled by low-energy light.

Current single-molecule photocatalysts are rare, inefficient, and don't use much of the visible light spectrum.

Most previous efforts to make full use of the sunlight spectrum have focused on ultraviolet light, and most relied on catalysts made of two or more molecules to convert solar energy into hydrogen. Attempts to use a single-molecule catalyst proved inefficient.

Rhodium however is expensive to process and the researchers are searching for a less expensive molecule which behaves similarly.

Journal Reference
Whittemore, T.J., Xue, C., Huang, J. et al. Single-chromophore single-molecule photocatalyst for the production of dihydrogen using low-energy light. Nat. Chem. (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-019-0397-4

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @03:40AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @03:40AM (#947830)

    Maybe there is hope for the hydrogen economy after all (where hydrogen replaces fossil fuels for transport)?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @05:14AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @05:14AM (#947852)
      Unless they can find a cheaper catalyst, it's unlikely. Rhodium is just about the rarest element on the planet!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @03:42AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @03:42AM (#947831)

    Finally Trump is letting out the classified super efficient solar panels. 10 kW per square meter?

    This will herald a new golden age of mankind.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @04:30AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @04:30AM (#947841)

      Dream on, there is barely 1 Kw/m^2 available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_irradiance#Irradiance_on_Earth's_surface [wikipedia.org]

      Average annual solar radiation arriving at the top of the Earth's atmosphere is roughly 1361 W/m2.[25] The Sun's rays are attenuated as they pass through the atmosphere, leaving maximum normal surface irradiance at approximately 1000 W /m2 at sea level on a clear day. When 1361 W/m2 is arriving above the atmosphere (when the sun is at the zenith in a cloudless sky), direct sun is about 1050 W/m2, and global radiation on a horizontal surface at ground level is about 1120 W/m2.[26] The latter figure includes radiation scattered or reemitted by atmosphere and surroundings. The actual figure varies with the Sun's angle and atmospheric circumstances.

         

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @03:19PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @03:19PM (#947960)

        There was a typo space after the decimal. It should have said 0.10

  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday January 24 2020, @04:28AM (2 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 24 2020, @04:28AM (#947840) Journal

    DOI of TO(riginal)FA [doi.org]
    Of course it's not free access, the fuckers!

    But maybe there's hope?

    Data availability

    All the data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Crystallographic data for structure 1 reported in this article has been deposited at the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre under deposition number CCDC 1871363. Copies of the data can be obtained free of charge via https://www.ccdc.cam.ac.uk/structures/ [cam.ac.uk]

    So, I go to there and... mother-fucking Cambridge Brexiters!!! Just on top of the page:

    We are currently moving over to our 2020 licensing system and so if you no longer have access to all the WebCSD functionality then please select the 'Activate WebCSD' option in the top drop down menu and add your license details. For more details on activating WebCSD please click here.

    Cool. Then a certain site in Russia it is when I get home!

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford

    • (Score: 2) by NickM on Friday January 24 2020, @04:33AM (1 child)

      by NickM (2867) on Friday January 24 2020, @04:33AM (#947842) Journal
      The reliable mirror is in Taiwan (.tw) !
      you are talking about sci-hub ?
      --
      I a master of typographic, grammatical and miscellaneous errors !

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday January 24 2020, @04:45AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 24 2020, @04:45AM (#947846) Journal

        Thanks for the tip.

        One doesn't talk in public about a site that's classified as breaching the copyright law.
        "The Fine Print:" notwithstanding, S/N has some obligations under Safe Harbor provision if, hypothetically speaking, someone were to activate a lawyerpult - I'd hate to have the Feds interrupting TMB's fishing with requests to take down comments or stories.
        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @05:11AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @05:11AM (#947849)

    It just had to be rhodium of all elements. Rhodium is likely the rarest element on the planet's crust, at around 0.2 parts per billion, certainly one of the three rarest along with rhenium and iridium. Highly doubtful if the process described will ever be of true practical use because of this.

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday January 24 2020, @07:36AM (1 child)

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 24 2020, @07:36AM (#947873) Journal

      Buy 1000 metric tons of potatoes from Sicily, you'll get about 100g of platinum + rhodium [mdpi.com]. And a lot of starches.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford

      • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @12:40PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @12:40PM (#947909)

        Have you got an extraction process that leaves edible & sale-able mashed potatoes? I'll find a source for the gravy...

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