IIT Mandi’s New Year Gift to Citizens, Develops Photocatalyst
A new technology splitting Hydrogen from water molecules has been developed by IIT Mandi researchers. Researchers claim this to be the pathbreaking technology to boost Hydrogen production for future years.
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi researchers on Monday came up with a unique solution to the ever-growing problem of bio-fuel scarcity in the country. The research team of IIT Mandi claims to have developed a new technology which can segregate the Hydrogen atoms from a water molecule using sunlight as a catalyst. The research team believes that this technology can be the potential “safe and clean fuel” in the years to come.
The head of the research team and Associate Professor of IIT Mandi School of Basic Science, Dr Venkata Krishnan, is very confident about the potential upsides of this technology in future. According to him, the element is abundantly found in our planet - mainly in the form of water and can be extracted with the help of a cheap catalyst - sunlight. The research team from the Yogi Vemana University of Andhra Pradesh collaborated with the IIT Mandi research team to come up with this astonishing piece of technology.
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Earlier Platinum was used as a catalyst to split water molecules into its constituent one atom of Oxygen and two atoms of Hydrogen which was pretty expensive. But now with a comparatively cheaper catalyst to help the cause, the researchers feel that the dawn of the hydrogen-based economy is already here. The photocatalytic activities will be made suitable with the help of a multicomponent catalyst, also developed by these researchers, which contains nanorods of nitrogen-doped zinc oxide bearing the coating of molybdenum sulphide nanosheets.
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The Dr Venkata Krishnan led-team consisted of members from the Yogi Vermana University like Mr V N Rao and Dr M V Shankar along with Mr Ajay Kumar, Dr Suneel Kumar and Mr Ashish Kumar from IIT Mandi. Dr Krishnan also sounded quite confident while highlighting the future implications of this technology.