中国科技网5月13日报道（张微 编译）氢是一种有着很大应用潜力的新能源。西班牙海梅一世大学光伏和光电设备集团的研究人员已经开发出了一种有机装置，仅仅用阳光就能用水生产氢。这些设备中使用的有机材料比现用的无机材料成本低，更高效也更具灵活性，但是当与水介质接触时，它们的稳定性还存在些问题。一项发表在物理化学期刊上的研究成果提到，这些设备已经实现了优良的稳定性，这就表明从有机材料中获取太阳燃料迈出了重要一步。
这项研究的合作者Sixto Giménez指出，“氢的生产能够在3个小时内完成，证实有机材料的稳定性还为时尚早。”
有机光伏设备在水中易腐蚀而且很容易损坏。“我们的策略是在光伏组件和促进氢气生成反应的催化剂之间安装一个物理屏障。为了达到目的，我们用纳米二氧化钛材料制作了一个致密层，不仅作为水和光伏组件之间的屏障，也起到光伏部件和铂催化剂间电力连接作用。采用这种方法，我们就可以在保持这些设备性能的同时，大大提高它们的稳定性，”安东尼奥 格雷罗研究员说。
从水和阳光中获取像氢这样的太阳燃料是解决全球能源问题的一项策略。“我们完全可以获取可再生能源，就像从阳光和水中获取氢这样的高能燃料。此外，氢作为化合物在生产化肥或合成氢化合物等工业领域有广泛的应用，” Giménez指出。
这项PHOCS(通过有机催化系统光催化生氢)计划下的研究，已经得到了欧盟第七框架计划的资助，旨在开发一种基于有机半导体材料的新设备，能够进行水的光解，从而有效地生产氢。这项研究寻求使用低成本以及更稳定的材料来生产氢的最佳方法。
这个即将于11月完成的项目，存在一个很大的挑战，就是要证明有机材料(塑料)可用于光电化学方法制氢，这个目标已经达到了。Giménez解释道，“氢这种高能燃料可以被当作汽油，这种能源可以被转换成电能和机械能。”这些太阳燃料“会让你在不久的将来去加油站时，不用加满汽油，而是加满氢，这些氢能够通过燃料电池转化能电能，然后转化为机械能。在这个过程中，水是唯一的废料。”因此，这个研究项目有助于将现有的依赖化石能源的能源消费模式转化为使用太阳能的尊重环境的可持续模式。
Researchers develop a novel organic device for obtaining hydrogen from water and sunlight
Hydrogen has great potential as a fuel. Researchers at the Photovoltaic and Optoelectronic Devices Group at the Universitat Jaume I have developed an organic device reduces water into hydrogen using only sunlight. Currently, organic materials used in these devices offer greater versatility and efficiency at a lower cost than the available inorganic ones, but they show stability problems when in contact with an aqueous medium. A study published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry achieves an exceptional stability in these devices and represents an important step in obtaining solar fuels from organic materials.
Sixto Giménez, coordinator of the research, noted, "The production of hydrogen has been achieved in three hours, demonstrating a stability of organic materials that had not been reached so far." ?
Organic photovoltaic devices corrode in water and damage very easily. ?"Our strategy has been to place a physical barrier between the photovoltaic component and the catalyst that makes the hydrogen generation reaction. In order to achieve this, we have deposited compact layers with nanometric titanium oxide material that not only acts as a barrier between the water and the photovoltaic part, but also connects electrically the photovoltaic part and the platinum catalyst. ?Using this strategy, we can greatly increase stability while maintaining the performance of these devices," said the researcher Antonio Guerrero.
Obtaining solar fuels like hydrogen from water and sunlight is a strategy aimed at solving the global energy problem. "We can have totally renewable resources like sunlight and water for obtaining an energetic conductor such as hydrogen. In addition, hydrogen is a chemical compound with endless applications in industry such as the generation of fertilizers or the synthesis of hydrogen compounds," noted Giménez.
The research has been developed under the PHOCS (Photogenerated Hydrogen by Organic Catalytic Systems) project, funded under the 7th Framework Programme of the European Union, which aims to develop new devices based on organic semiconductor materials to perform the photodecomposition of water, leading to the efficient generation of hydrogen. ?It seeks to optimize the use of cheaper and more sustainable materials for the production of hydrogen.
One of the main challenges of the project, which will finish in November, is to demonstrate that organic materials (plastics) can be used for photoelectrochemical hydrogen generation, a target that has already been reached. Giménez explains, "Hydrogen can be used as petrol due to its high energy potential, an energy that can be converted into electricity and into mechanical energy." The use of these solar fuels "will allow you to go in the near future to a service station and, instead of filling up with petrol, you will be able to refuel with hydrogen that will be transformed into electricity via a fuel cell and then into mechanical energy. Water will be the only waste product." Thus, the research project contributes to the transition from the current energy model based on fossil fuels to a sustainable model that respects the environment focused on the use of solar energy.
