Solar cell powers water-to-hydrogen conversion

A class of materials that has quickly become the rising star of the solar cell world could enable production of hydrogen fuel using sunlight.

Michael Grätzel a chemist in in Switzerland, and colleagues built a photovoltaic device using cheap and abundant materials called perovskites.

Grätzel’s group describes a device that uses sunlight to split water into oxygen and hydrogen gas with 12.3 percent efficiency. That figure puts the device above the 10 percent benchmark for useful solar-to-hydrogen conversion. Hydrogen holds promise as clean fuel to power cars or produce electricity.