New water splitting catalyst

[Grenadier]

Looks encouraging... Titanium disilicide is fairly common, and this method seems far more efficient than electrolysis (which consumes more energy than it liberates).

http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/85/i41/8541notw4.html

 

[cdunn]

Wow, I think this is the first one I've ever seen that doesn't claim to horribly butcher the laws of thermodynamics. This, too, in the bulk analysis, must also 'consume more energy that it stores for later use', the bonus is in lowering the energy barrier to the reaction far enough that sunlight is able to provide the required energy. It is a significant step, if it is not smoke.

I suspect, however, in the long run, these too, will need to be augmented by more traditional power generation, with the hydrogen becoming an effective 'storage' medium for generated power off of, say, a nuclear plant, preferably fusion.

 

[tellner]

That really is interesting. For the last hundred years there have been Secret Chemicals the Illuminati Don't Want YOU to Know About. They can run a car on a cup of water or otherwise (as cdunn said) play merry hell with thermodynamics. They always evaporate under scrutiny.

This one actually makes some sense. You still put in energy. It's just that the amount you need is lower. And it seems to be active over a fairly wide range of frequencies in the visible spectrum which makes sunlight a decent energy source.

It might not change the world, but it could surely make things a little more efficient.

Look for it to become a lab process, then an engineering process. And now that people are looking for compounds that do this you'll find them cropping up all over the place. After a couple lucky accidents, inspired hunches or tedious work poring through tomes and journals you find something. Once other people look there are often many related substances or processes. It's just that nobody had been looking or looking in the right place.

It's a lot like superconductivity. Superconductivity was originally the province of terribly low temperatures, just above Absolute Zero. Then the first ceramic high temperature superconductors were discovered. Then there were hundreds. Now there are hints at room temperature superconductivity. It's not concrete, but you can be sure people are looking with a more sophisticated eye.

 

[tellner]

Here's the article from EE Times:

(Editor's note: A March 17 story about new research on the potential superconducting properties of the material silane contained numerous errors. They are corrected below.)
A Canadian-German research team has reported what they say is the first evidence that superconductivity can occur in a common gaseous hydrogen compound -- silane -- when compressed to a solid at very high pressure.
The finding, first published in the journal Science, promises to advance the design of more efficient superconducting materials that could be used for a variety of applications, the researchers said.
"Our research in this area is aimed at improving the critical temperature for superconductivity so that new superconductors can be operated at higher temperatures," said John Tse, Canada Research Chair in Materials Science at the University of Saskatchewan.
Tse carried out the theoretical work with doctoral candidate Yansun Yao using Canada's WestGrid computing facility. Experimental work was carried out by researcher Mikhail Eremets of the Max Planck Institute of Germany.
The new family of superconductors is based on a hydrogen-containing compound called silane, the silicon analog of methane. Silane combines a single silicon atom with four hydrogen atoms to form a molecular hydride. (Methane combines a single carbon atom with four hydrogen atoms.)
Researchers have long speculated that hydrogen under enough pressure would superconduct, but have so far been unable to achieve the necessary conditions since hydrogen is difficult to compress to the density required for superconductivity. The Canadian and German researchers attributed their success to using a hydrogen-rich compound with silicon that reduced the amount of compression needed to achieve superconductivity.
In separate research, Tse's team is using the Canadian Light Source synchrotron to characterize the high-pressure structures of other hydrides as potential superconducting materials for industrial applications as well as a storage mechanism for hydrogen fuel cells.
The research was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canada Research Chairs program, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the Max Planck Institute.

Nicely qualified and corrected. We haven't got the Grail yet, but we see a suspicious light, and we know it's not the Castle Anthrax

 

[Xue Sheng]

Nicely qualified and corrected. We haven't got the Grail yet, but we see a suspicious light, and we know it's not the Castle Anthrax

You can't fool me thier just looking for Zoot