Researchers at the Universities of Kentucky and Louisville have determined that an inexpensive semiconductor alloy can be "tweaked" to generate hydrogen from water using sunlight. The team has demonstrated that an alloy formed by a 2% substitution of antimony in gallium nitride has the right electrical properties to enable solar light to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. When the alloy is immersed in water and exposed to sunlight, the chemical bond between the hydrogen and oxygen molecules in water is broken and the hydrogen can be collected. Gallium nitride is a semiconductor that is in widespread use to … Continue Reading →