Direct splitting of water using a particulate photocatalyst would be a good way to produce clean and recyclable hydrogen on a large scale¹, and in the past 30 years various photocatalysts have been found that function under visible light^{2, 3, 4}. Here we describe an advance in the catalysis of the overall splitting of water under visible light: the new catalyst is a solid solution of gallium and zinc nitrogen oxide^{5, 6}, (Ga_1-xZn_x)(N_1-xO_x), modified with nanoparticles of a mixed oxide of rhodium and chromium. The mixture functions as a promising and efficient photocatalyst in promoting the evolution of hydrogen gas.

1. Department of Chemical System Engineering, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
2. Solution Oriented Research for Science and Technology (SORST) programmes of the Japan Science and Technology Corporation, 4-1-8 Honcho, Kawaguchi-shi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan
3. Department of Chemistry, Nagaoka University of Technology, Nagaoka 940-2188, Japan

Correspondence to: Kazunari Domen^1,2 Email: domen@chemsys.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Received 5 December 2005 | Accepted 20 February 2006 |

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