[Marxism] "Major Discovery" From MIT Primed to Unleash Solar Revolution

[S. Artesian]

Damn, and I was just about to sing Happy Days Are Here Again and buy stock 
futures on the solar energy and fuel cell industries.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Les Schaffer" <schaffer at optonline.net>
To: <sartesian at earthlink.net>
Sent: Friday, August 01, 2008 11:10 AM
god, i love MIT ...

the galaxy-shaking discovery is related to *storage* of energy. you
still have to collect that energy at the energy densities available here
on our earth...

makes nice newsprint though...

Les





In Situ Formation of an Oxygen-Evolving Catalyst in Neutral Water
Containing Phosphate and Co2+
Matthew W. Kanan 1 and Daniel G. Nocera 1*

1 Department of Chemistry, 6-335, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, MA 02139–4307, USA.


The utilization of solar energy on a large scale requires its storage.
In natural photosynthesis, energy from sunlight is used to rearrange the
bonds of water to O2 and H2-equivalents. The realization of artificial
systems that perform similar "water splitting" requires catalysts that
produce O2 from water without the need for excessive driving potentials.
Here, we report such a catalyst that forms upon the oxidative
polarization of an inert indium tin oxide electrode in
phosphate-buffered water containing Co2+. A variety of analytical
techniques indicates the presence of phosphate in an approximate 1:2
ratio with cobalt in this material. The pH dependence of the catalytic
activity also implicates HPO42– as the proton acceptor in the
O2-producing reaction. This catalyst not only forms in situ from
earth-abundant materials but also operates in neutral water under
ambient conditions.



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