UCLA researchers have designed a device that can use solar energy to inexpensively and efficiently create and store energy, which could be used to power electronic devices, and to create hydrogen fuel for eco-friendly cars.
Richard Kaner and Maher El-Kady are heading this new inovation.
Combining a supercapacitor and the water-splitting technology into a single unit, is an advance similar to the first time a phone, web browser and camera were combined on a smartphone.
"Hydrogen is a great fuel for vehicles: It is the cleanest fuel known, it's cheap and it puts no pollutants into the air -- just water," said Richard Kaner, the study's senior author and a UCLA distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and of materials science and engineering. "And this could dramatically lower the cost of hydrogen cars."
The innovation, portrayed in a paper in the diary Energy Storage Materials, could be particularly helpful in rural regions, or to military units serving in remote areas.
"Individuals require fuel to run their vehicles and power to run their gadgets," Kaner said. "Presently you can make both power and fuel with a solitary gadget."
It could likewise be a piece of an answer for substantial urban communities that need approaches to store surplus power from their electrical networks.
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