Study: Efficient new catalyst may pave way for hydrogen economyby Brooks HaysMadison, Wis. (UPI) Sep 14, 2015
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Many researchers continue to hold hope for an eco-friendly hydrogen economy -- a comprehensive energy-delivery industry based on hydrogen.
Hydrogen can be burned to create heat or used in fuel cells to make electricity. It is also an efficient way to store energy. And unlike fossil fuels, which give off harmful emissions when burned, water is hydrogen's only byproduct.
But like so many other alternative energy panaceas, the technology remains prohibitively expensive. Oxidation-resistant noble metals, like platinum, which are used in water splitting devices, are rare and expensive -- limiting hydrogen's potential as alternative fuel source.
Catalysts are substances which lower the amount of energy necessary to initiate chemical reactions.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have discovered a cheap and efficient alternative to the use of noble gases as a catalyst in hydrogen production -- a combination of phosphorus and sulfur (common elements) and cobalt, a metal 1,000 times cheaper than the cheapest noble metals.
Because electricity is currently used to split water and produce hydrogen, some have questioned the true environmental benefits of a hydrogen economy. But engineers have been improving hydrogen-making technologies that use solar energy for water-splitting.
Researchers at Wisconsin say their new catalyst also works with sunlight-powered water-splitting devices.
"We have demonstrated a proof-of-concept device for using this cobalt catalyst and solar energy to drive hydrogen generation, which also has the best reported efficiency for systems that rely only on inexpensive catalysts and materials to convert directly from sunlight to hydrogen," Song Jin, a chemistry professor at Wisconsin, said in a press release.
Since the accidental discovery of hydrogen and oxygen production by sunlight alone, a byproduct of a certain mining process in the 1950s, mainstream is finally catching up to 'field' applications.
One step closer "Band theory is a quantum theory developed in the first half of the 20th century to explain the electrical properties of substances. The theory is based on the idea of quantum energy states. Electrons in a substance either have both sufficient energy and free transition and, thus, are able to enter the zone of conductivity, or they do not, in which case it becomes what researchers call a "forbidden zone."
At the same time, preliminary estimates indicate that this effect is capable of opening a new path to faster computers. Motto transition occurs under the influence of several factors, including a magnetic field, which allows it to be controlled from outside. This makes it possible for researchers to permit current flow or to stop it at a necessary point. Such a scheme could replace common transistors and, in this case, allow them to be faster and more compact. But to do so, scientists must utilize the theory of Motto transition.
The theory belongs to fundamental conceptions explaining the electrical properties of a substance. It has a direct relation not only to Motto insulator behavior but also to superconductivity and the fundamentals of spintronics, a technology that could allow the control of electron spin. Superconductivity and spintronics are among those trends ......"
Overview of Spintronics Nassim Haramein's Page
Where there is a change in density, a spiral vortex appears, which is why everything in the universe on all scales is constantly spinning. There are 122 orders of magnitude difference in the density of space from the cosmological level to the quantum level. Where this nearly infinite gradient changes, you see spin, in the form of a galaxy, a star or an atom depending on what scale you are looking at.
More on the origin of spin: