Through an energy conversion process that mimics that of a tree, a University of Wisconsin-Madison materials scientist is making strides in renewable energy technologies for producing hydrogen. Xudong Wang, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at UW-Madison, recently collaborated with researcher, Dr. Zhiyong Cai, in the U.S. Forest Products Laboratory in Madison on research to use cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) for water splitting, a process that converts solar energy to hydrogen fuel. Wang’s vision is to use cellulose like a sponge “tree” that soaks up water from a lake or ocean. At the top would be a photocatalyst that splits the water into hydrogen and oxygen. An illustration of the water splitting process Wang describes. And while researchers have explored water-splitting techniques for years, those techniques have relied on photocatalysts submerged in the water, which limits light penetration to the catalyst. “People made photocatalysts in the water and shone light into the water to generate hydrogen and oxygen,” Wang says. “But the limitations included light penetration through the water to get to the catalyst. You cannot simply increase the amount of the catalyst since sun is refracted and diffracted. That limited the efficiency of those techniques.” Wang and his collaborators are soaking water up
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