A new liquid-metal process powered by light could reshape how hydrogen is produced.
Scientists have found a new way to make clean hydrogen from water using liquid metal and light, and it works with both freshwater and seawater. Instead of relying on electricity to split water, the process uses sunlight to trigger chemistry at the surface of tiny metal droplets, releasing hydrogen gas.
That seawater capability is a big deal. Many existing green hydrogen approaches perform best with highly purified water, which adds cost and complexity and can be difficult to justify in water stressed regions.
By working directly with seawater, the new method points toward hydrogen production that could be located closer to coastlines and industrial ports where demand is high and freshwater is limited.
“We now have a way of extracting sustainable hydrogen, using seawater, which is easily accessible while relying solely on light for green hydrogen production,” said lead author and PhD candidate Luis Campos.
Liquid Metals and Efficiency Gains
Senior researcher Professor Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh from the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering describes the work as a powerful example of how liquid metals can naturally drive hydrogen production through their chemistry.
Using this method, the research team achieved a peak hydrogen production efficiency of 12.9 percent. While the system is still in its early stages, efforts are underway to further raise efficiency levels to support future commercial use.
“For the first proof-of-concept, we consider the efficiency of this technology to be highly competitive. For instance, silicon-based solar cells started with six percent in the 1950s and did not pass 10 percent till the 1990s.”
“Hydrogen offers a clean energy solution for a sustainable future and could play a pivotal role in Australia’s international advantage in a hydrogen economy,” says project co-lead Dr. Francois Allioux.
Gallium stood out because of its ability to absorb light. This property led researchers to examine how gallium behaves when dispersed in water and exposed to sunlight.
That investigation resulted in a system built around a circular chemical process. Tiny gallium particles are suspended in either freshwater or seawater and activated by sunlight or artificial illumination. During this process, gallium reacts with water to form gallium oxyhydroxide while releasing hydrogen gas.
“After we extract hydrogen, the gallium oxyhydroxide can also be reduced back into gallium and reused for future hydrogen production which we term a circular process,” says Professor Kalantar-Zadeh.
A Simple Reaction with Big Implications
Liquid gallium displays unusual physical characteristics. Although it appears solid at room temperature, warming it to around body temperature causes it to melt into reflective pools of liquid metal.
Mr Campos explained that liquid gallium typically has a chemically “non-sticky” surface, meaning other materials do not readily adhere to it under normal conditions. When the metal is exposed to light while submerged in water, however, reactions occur at its surface.
Under these illuminated conditions, gallium slowly oxidizes and corrodes. This surface reaction leads to the release of clean hydrogen gas and the formation of gallium oxyhydroxide, both of which are central to the hydrogen production process.
“Gallium has not been explored before as a way to produce hydrogen at high rates when in contact with water such a simple observation that was ignored previously,” says Professor Kalantar-Zadeh.
The University of Sydney-led research was published in Nature Communications.
Why scientists are so keen on hydrogen molecules
Many industries and scientists believe hydrogen is the ideal candidate for a sustainable energy source, contributing significantly to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. ‘Green’ hydrogen, as its name suggests, is made using renewable sources.
Hydrogen is one of the most abundant elements on Earth and can be sourced from a large range of compounds as well, such as water (water has two hydrogen molecules). When hydrogen burns, it produces no pollutants, only water, but still can generate high levels of energy or power.
Efforts to produce green hydrogen have focused on ‘water splitting’: splitting atoms in water molecules to release hydrogen using methods including electrolysis, photocatalysis, and plasma (artificial lightning).
But the process required to separate hydrogen and oxygen atoms in water has faced multiple obstacles, including the need to use purified water, incurring high cost or producing low yields of hydrogen.
The method Professor Kalantar-Zadeh’s team introduced with liquid gallium avoids many of those obstacles. The method can use both sea and fresh water, and because the process is circular, gallium in the reaction can be reused.
Professor Kalantar-Zadeh said: “There is a global need to commercialize a highly efficient method for producing green hydrogen. Our process is efficient and easy to scale up.”
The team is now working on increasing the efficiency of the technology, and their next goal is to establish a mid-scale reactor to extract hydrogen.
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