This achievement represents another 10% increase over the previous 1.1 volt reached late last year, a significant step towards truly renewable low cost hydrogen.
"We now see a path to production of hydrogen through immersion of low cost semiconductor materials in water," stated Tim Young.
"Our approach uses only one type of inexpensive semiconducting material and reduces manufacturing complexity. Use of low cost materials with an industrial scaleable process and may even make it a viable approach for fabricating low-cost photovoltaic modules for other applications beyond water splitting."
It is well known that the theoretical voltage for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen is 1.23 volts, and approximately 1.5 volts in real-world systems.
Achieving 1.5 volts using inexpensive solar cells has eluded the world. For example, silicon solar cells are the most inexpensive and abundant, but their 0.7 volt open circuit voltage is not enough to split water. Commercially available high voltage solar cells are considered to be far too expensive for use in hydrogen production.
HyperSolar’s research is centered on developing a low-cost and submersible hydrogen production particle that can split water molecules under the sun, emulating the core functions of photosynthesis. Each particle is a complete hydrogen generator that contains a novel high voltage solar cell bonded to chemical catalysts by a proprietary encapsulation coating.
