A team of scientists from the School of Chemistry at the University of East Anglia have made a promising breakthrough with a new process to produce hydrogen by splitting water using sunlight. The use of hydrogen-powered fuel cells is considered to be a ‘clean’ form of energy; more environmentally friendly and using less resources.

Developed by teams led by Professor Thomas Nann and Professor Chris Pickett, the new technology uses a gold electrode covered with layers of indium phosphide nanoparticles and an iron-sulphur complex. When submerged in water, irradiated with light and a small current applied, hydrogen is produced with high level (60 %) efficiency. Also, because the system works without the use of organic compounds, the usual degradation problems leading to a limited lifetime and subsequent high costs are circumvented.

It is hoped that this technology could lead to a promising alternative for hydrogen production in industry.