UC Santa Cruz chemists have developed a simple method to make aluminum nanoparticles that split water and generate hydrogen gas rapidly under ambient conditions. The water-splitting reaction does not require an applied potential and functions at ambient conditions and neutral pH to rapidly generate 130 mL (5.4 mmol) of hydrogen per gram of alloy. A paper on their work is published in the journal ACS Applied Nano Materials . Aluminum is a highly reactive metal that can strip oxygen from water molecules to generate hydrogen gas. Its widespread use in products that get wet poses no danger because aluminum instantly reacts with air to acquire a coating of aluminum oxide, which blocks further reactions. For years, researchers have tried to find efficient and cost-effective ways to use aluminum’s reactivity to generate clean hydrogen fuel. A new study by the researchers at UCSC shows that an easily produced composite of […]