Researchers at the University of Southampton in the UK have transformed optical fibres into photocatalytic microreactors that convert water into hydrogen fuel using solar energy.
The groundbreaking technology coats the inside of microstructured optical fibre canes (MOFCs) with a photocatalyst which – with light – generates hydrogen that could power a wide range of sustainable applications.
Chemists, physicists and engineers at Southampton have published their proof of concept in ACS Photonics and will now establish wider studies that demonstrate the scalability of the platform.
The MOFCs have been developed as high pressure microfluidic reactors by each housing multiple capillaries that pass a chemical reaction along the length of the cane.
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