Breakthrough in photovoltaic process could lead us into new technology. The new solar cell technology called “Solar Paint” Material, can produce electricity. The team researcher from RMIT University Australia have engineered the paint that can absorb water in form of vapor so it can split the hydrogen and oxygen within it to produce of the cleanest sources of energy.
Harvesting the hydrogen and oxygen throughout green technology will become true. Recent breakthrough conducted by the RMIT’s researcher found that the paint can become semiconductor and catalysis in segregating molecules of waters which are hydrogen and oxygen. But, instead of using electricity in performing the splitting, the researchers use “sunlight” exposed to the synthetic molybdenum-sulphide (Glanz, 2017).
Molybdenum-sulphide currently is considered as one of the best alternative compounds to do electrocatalysis and photocatalysis. As the conversion of solar energy into fuel such as hydrogen is directly needed because of its effectiveness, the using of molybdenum-sulphide is growing. The reasons behind this utilization are the structure during the oxidation and reduction process. On the other hand, the use of molybdenum-sulphide is not as poisonous as another metal sulphide.
The harvesting energy from “solar” paint
In performing the energy harvesting, the new “solar” paint conducts the photocatalytic and electrocatalytic system. As the molybdenum-sulphide plays crucial role for semiconductor materials, the research team utilized as semiconductor while at the same time acts as catalysis. The reduction and oxidation reactions can be performed by the presence of sunlight. When the sunlight rays the paint, the molybdenum-sulphide absorbs the solar energy – which performs the photocatalytic process --, and it moves towards the electrolytic process. Moreover, these two processes are called as artificial photosynthesis.
Artificial photosynthesis as mentioned above performs two stage of processes. Firstly, by connecting the photovoltaic devices or compounds to water so the catalyst within it will be reacted. This energy converting generates hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) (Montoya, et al., 2016). The next stage after HER is occurred, the electrochemical process in separating the water molecules. But, the RMIT’s research team combined the molybdenum-sulphide which acted as photovoltaic devices with paint. With the help of Titanium Oxide and water which are the main compounds of wall paint, they were able to make the paint acting as “solar” harvesting energy materials.
Why choosing paint as medium for solar materials
However, as the demands of clean energy resources is to produce the fuel, then the researchers combined it with the electrochemical process. The water consisted inside the paint will be splitting with the help of sunlight in generating the HER process.
Conclusion
The new technology of solar paint could become the best way to harvest clean energy. The hydrogen fuels which are obtained will be in form of gases.
References
Glanz, D. (2017, June 14). Solar paint offers endless energy from water vapour. Retrieved from RMIT University: https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/all-news/2017/jun/solar-paint-offers-endless-energy-from-water-vapour
Montoya, J. H., Seitz, L. C., Chakthranont, P., Vojvodic, A., Jaramillo, T. F., & Norskov, J. K. (2016). Materials for solar fuels and chemicals. Nature Materials, 70-81.