Research & Development World

  • Home Page
  • Topics
    • Aerospace
    • Archeology
    • Automotive
    • Biotech
    • Chemistry
    • COVID-19
    • Environment
    • Energy
    • Life Science
    • Material Science
    • R&D Market Pulse
    • R&D Management
    • Physics
  • Technology
    • 3D Printing
    • A.I./Robotics
    • Battery Technology
    • Controlled Environments
      • Cleanrooms
      • Graphene
      • Lasers
      • Regulations/Standards
      • Sensors
    • Imaging
    • Nanotechnology
    • Scientific Computing
      • Big Data
      • HPC/Supercomputing
      • Informatics
      • Security
      • Software
    • Semiconductors
  • 2021 R&D 100 Award Winners
    • R&D 100 Awards
    • 2020 Winners
    • Winner Archive
  • Resources
    • Digital Issues
    • Podcasts
    • Subscribe
  • Global Funding Forecast
  • Webinars

Cerium’s Properties Enhance Water Splitting

By Kenny Walter | October 24, 2017

Researchers have finally explained why cerium is considered the best element used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, crucial for creating hydrogen gas used for fuel.

A team from Northwestern University have discovered that cerium’s electronic entropy—which is created when an electron transitions among various states within an electron shell—is the key reason it is successfully used in water splitting.

“In order for water splitting to be fast enough to be practical, you need a large amount of entropy,” Chris Wolverton, Ph.D., a professor of materials science and engineering in Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering, said in a statement. “It turns out that cerium is magic for entropy.”

Since the 1970s, researchers have touted the potential of a “hydrogen economy,” where hydrogen would replace gasoline to fuel ground transportation.  After being burnt the only byproduct of hydrogen is water—making it environmentally cleaner and more energy efficient than fossil-fuel alternatives.

However, pure hydrogen gas is rare within the Earth’s atmosphere.

“The problem is: how do you get the hydrogen in the first place?” Wolverton said. “Currently, you have to burn hydrocarbons but that produces carbon dioxide.”

However, water splitting could cleanly and efficiently produce enough pure hydrogen to make the hydrogen economy a real possibility.

The researchers used heat generated by solar radiation and cerium oxide to split the hydrogen from oxygen.

Using sunlight to heat ceria to 1,000- to-1,500-degrees Celsius drives a series of reactions that cause hydrogen to split off.

The researchers previously knew that entropy was the key to making the reaction possible but weren’t able to find the source of cerium’s entropy.

“Most people thought entropy was caused by mixing oxygen or vibrations from the heat,” Wolverton said. “But we found that it’s a different source and it’s not what you might think.”

To successfully drive water splitting cerium in the oxide must gain an electron that gives rise to whole lot of entropy.

“If there are multiple places for the electron, that gives rise to electronic entropy,” Wolverton said. “The electron can transition from one state to another to another and creates disorder on the electronic scale, and hence, entropy.”  

 

Related Articles Read More >

R&D 100 winner of the day: Guardiant
R&D 100 winner of the day: PPG HI-TEMP 1027 HD
R&D 100 of the day: Autonomous Self-Healing Sealant
Why there’s a neon shortage — and why it matters
2021 R&D Global Funding Forecast

Need R&D World news in a minute?

We Deliver!
R&D World Enewsletters get you caught up on all the mission critical news you need in research and development. Sign up today.
Enews Signup

R&D World Digital Issues

February 2020 issue

Browse the most current issue of R&D World and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Clip, share and download with the leading R& magazine today.

Research & Development World
  • Subscribe to R&D World Magazine
  • Enews Sign Up
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing
  • 2022 Global Funding Forecast

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search R&D World

  • Home Page
  • Topics
    • Aerospace
    • Archeology
    • Automotive
    • Biotech
    • Chemistry
    • COVID-19
    • Environment
    • Energy
    • Life Science
    • Material Science
    • R&D Market Pulse
    • R&D Management
    • Physics
  • Technology
    • 3D Printing
    • A.I./Robotics
    • Battery Technology
    • Controlled Environments
      • Cleanrooms
      • Graphene
      • Lasers
      • Regulations/Standards
      • Sensors
    • Imaging
    • Nanotechnology
    • Scientific Computing
      • Big Data
      • HPC/Supercomputing
      • Informatics
      • Security
      • Software
    • Semiconductors
  • 2021 R&D 100 Award Winners
    • R&D 100 Awards
    • 2020 Winners
    • Winner Archive
  • Resources
    • Digital Issues
    • Podcasts
    • Subscribe
  • Global Funding Forecast
  • Webinars