Researchers have developed a tough new catalyst that carries out a solar-powered reaction 100 times faster than ever before, works better as time goes on and stands up to acid.
And because it requires less of the rare and costly metal iridium, it could bring down the cost of a process that mimics photosynthesis by using sunlight to split water molecules - a key step in a renewable, sustainable pathway to produce hydrogen or carbon-based fuels that can power a broad range of energy technologies.
A Multi-pronged Search
The discovery of the catalyst - a very thin film of iridium oxide layered on top of strontium iridium oxide -- was the result of an extensive search by three groups of experts for a more efficient way to accelerate the oxygen evolution reaction, or OER, which is half of a two-step process for splitting water with sunlight.
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