Alloy could produce hydrogen fuel using sunlight

Intellitech writes Using the state of the art theoretical calculations, a University of Kentucky, the team from the University of Louisville showed that the alloy formed by a substitution of 2 percent antimony (Sb ) in the gallium nitride (GaN) has good electrical properties allow the energy of sunlight to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, a process known as photoelectrochemical water splitting (PEC). When the alloy is immersed in water and exposed to sunlight, the chemical bond between hydrogen and oxygen molecules in water is broken (abstract). Because pure hydrogen gas is not in abundance without the Earth, it must be made in the release of other compounds. Thus, hydrogen is not considered an energy source, but rather an energy carrier. Currently, it takes a lot of electricity to produce hydrogen by water dissociation. As a result, most of the hydrogen produced today is derived from non-renewable sources such as coal and natural gas. The team said the alloy Sb-GaN has the potential to transform solar energy into an economic system without carbon source for hydrogen.