Developers of renewable hydrogen fuel are keen to get their hands on fast, stable catalysts that, together with sunlight, split water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen. Coming up with a catalyst that oxidizes water to generate oxygen has proved the toughest part.
Craig Hill and his colleagues at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, have devised an inorganic, soluble catalyst that drives this step at higher rates than other, similar catalysts. They show that the catalyst is stable under reaction conditions and self-assembles in water using abundant metals such as cobalt. The complex resists degradation better than other catalysts of its kind because it doesn't contain organic residues that are easily oxidized.
The researchers say the next step is to test their catalyst's performance when used with light-capturing electrodes or nanostructures.
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Chemistry: Water splitting. Nature 464, 468 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/464468c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/464468c
