Fuel cells that run on water could be in the pipeline following a new breakthrough thanks in part to the use of platinum.

A research team at Tokyo's University of Science has announced that it has successfully managed to produce hydrogen from water by using gallium nitride crystals.

By connecting the crystals to platinum using a wire and immersing it in water, the scientists were able to decompose the water into hydrogen and oxygen by applying light to the crystals.

However, the process is currently in its early stages, with the ratio of hydrogen produced to the energy used to shine the light at just 0.5 to 0.7 per cent.

While the conversion efficiency rate is currently relatively low, if the figure can be raised the process could become a viable option to deliver hydrogen to fuel cells – a problem that is currently one of the major barriers to wide scale use of fuel cells.

Kazuhiro Ohkawa, one of the scientists at the university, is confident that the efficiency can be improved with more work, commenting that, "theoretically", the ratio can be raised to "more than 20 per cent".


Ÿ Adfero Ltd