Nanocoatings improve water-splitting efficiency

Splitting water into its components is an important first step in achieving carbon-neutral fuels to power transportation infrastructure, including cars and aircraft.

The research, from North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, are published in two separate papers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) coats three-dimensional structures with a precise, ultra-thin layer of material.

‘In this case, the layers are less than one nanometre thick – or almost a million times thinner than a human hair,’ said Dr Mark Losego, research assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at NC State and a co-author on the work.

Although extremely thin, these coatings improve the attachment and performance of surface-bound molecular catalysts used for water-splitting reactions in hydrogen-fuel-producing devices.

In the first paper, ‘Solar water splitting in a molecular photoelectrochemical cell,’ the researchers used ALD coatings on nanostructured water-splitting cells to improve the efficiency of electrical current flow from the molecular catalyst to the device. The findings are claimed to have significantly improved the hydrogen generating capacity of these molecular-based solar water-splitting cells.