TU-TESL

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According to foreign media reports, scientists have developed a single molecule that can effectively absorb sunlight for the first time, and the molecule can also be used as a catalyst to convert solar energy into hydrogen, which can be used as a clean alternative fuel for fuel vehicles. The new molecule can collect energy from the whole visible spectrum, and can use 50% more solar energy than the current solar energy. The discovery could help people get rid of their dependence on fossil fuels and switch to energy sources that will not have an impact on the climate. (photo: Phys. ORG) the research team is led by Claudia Turro, director and professor of chemistry, Center for chemistry and Biophysics dynamics, Ohio State University. "Our idea is to use solar photons to turn them into hydrogen," Turro said. In short, we use energy from sunlight and store it in chemical bonds for later use. " Photons are the basic particles of sunlight, containing energy. For the first time, researchers have proved that energy can be collected from the whole visible spectrum of sunlight (including the low-energy infrared spectrum, which is also part of the sunlight spectrum, and it is difficult to collect the energy of this spectrum before), and it can be quickly and effectively converted into hydrogen. Hydrogen is a kind of clean fuel, which will not produce carbon or carbon dioxide in use. "This was achieved because the system was able to put the molecule in an excited state, absorb photons, and store two electrons to make hydrogen," Turro said. It is unprecedented to store two electrons in a molecule produced by two photons and synthesize hydrogen. " To convert solar energy into automobile fuel, we first need to use a mechanism to collect energy, and then convert such energy into fuel, and the conversion needs something called "catalyst" (which can accelerate chemical reaction), so that solar energy can be converted into usable energy such as hydrogen. Previous studies have mostly tried to collect sunlight with higher energy wavelengths, such as ultraviolet, and then convert such solar energy into hydrogen. Turro said that a small number of studies that rely on single molecules to collect energy are also very inefficient, in part because of the inability to collect energy from the entire visible spectrum, which is due to the rapid degradation of the catalyst itself. Turro's team found out how to use a molecule, a form of rhodium, to make a catalyst that can lose less energy. The team found a way to collect energy from the entire visible spectrum, from infrared to ultraviolet. The efficiency of the system designed by the research team is more than 24 times higher than that of the previous single molecule system working with ultraviolet photons. In this study, researchers used LED lights to irradiate acidic solutions containing active molecules, and found that hydrogen was produced. "The reason the method works is that it's very difficult to oxidize the molecule," Turro said Turro said there was still a lot of work to be done before the team could apply the results to the real world. Rhodium is a kind of rare metal. The cost of making catalyst from rhodium is high. Now, the team is working to improve the molecule to make hydrogen over a longer period of time, and to make catalysts from cheaper materials.