A research team from the Tokyo Institute of Technology created the first visible-light photoanode made of titanium dioxide or TiO2 enhanced with cobalt. The anode is a key element needed to achieve affordable water splitting to produce hydrogen, a clean alternative to fossil fuel . In a paper published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces , the researchers explain that photoelectrochemical water splitting, the process by which light energy is used to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen is a promising approach to obtain pure hydrogen for use as an alternative clean fuel . The process is carried out in electrochemical cells that contain an anode and a cathode submerged in water, which are connected through an external circuit. At the anode, water oxidation occurs, whereby O2 is produced by drawing energy from light waves. These waves transfer energy to the electrons of the anode material, […]