Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Light work with water

Sunlight can be harnessed by semiconductors to generate a fuel, hydrogen gas, from water. This approach will be impracticable until certain materials-related constraints are overcome: photochemists are on the case.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Energy-conversion strategies for creating fuel or electricity from sunlight.

References

  1. Bard, A. J. & Fox, M. A. Acct. Chem. Res. 28, 141–145 (1995).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Zou, Z., Ye, J., Sayama, K. & Arakawa, H. Nature 414, 625–627 (2001).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Tan, M. S. et al. Prog. Inorg. Chem. 41, 21–144 (1994).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Honda, K. & Fujishima, A. Nature 238, 37–38 (1972).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Finklea, H. A. Semiconductor Electrodes (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1998).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Kung, H. H., Jarrett, H. S., Sleight, A. W. & Ferretti, A. J. Appl. Phys. 48, 2463–2469 (1977).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nathan S. Lewis.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lewis, N. Light work with water. Nature 414, 589–590 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/414589a

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/414589a

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing