Splitting the water molecule: Sino-Japanese scientists mimic plants to solve energy problems

Taking inspiration from the way in which plants produce hydrogen using energy from the sun, scientists in China and Japan claim to have discovered a new formula for making a do-it-yourself “gas field” at home that could provide electricity and fuel for the house and car. 

Theoretically, users could throw a handful of the new compound into their backyard swimming pool and use the fuel produced to fill up their tanks, without requiring a trip to the petrol station.

Scientists see this as a potential breakthrough for energy production, in an age when people are becoming increasingly conscious of the earth’s limited resources while slowly migrating over to cleaner energy sources.

“The beauty of this technology is that it can be used by anybody at any place using water and sunlight, without the need for massive infrastructure or financial investment,” said professor Zhang Fuxiang, a lead scientist of the study.

“If you don’t have a swimming pool, that’s fine. Just lift a few buckets of water on the roof and the power created will generate enough hydrogen to meet your daily energy needs. It’s as simple and cheap as this,” added Zhang, who works for the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics. 

The breakthrough was reported in the latest issue of Angewandte Chemie, a leading peer-reviewed journal on applied chemistry in Germany.