HYDROGEN FROM SOLAR ENERGY

A group of researchers from the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technologies of Al-Farabi KazNU is conducting research on the development of photocatalysts based on heterostructure nanocomposites, first obtained by a mechanochemical method.

As you know, hydrogen technology is actively developing all over the world, and almost all large companies from the field of automotive production and electrical engineering are investing in its development. Photocatalysts for hydrogen production are developed in the laboratories of the best universities in the world. All these facts show the importance of research in the development of photocatalytic hydrogen production using solar energy. According to the developers, the implementation of such projects will increase the competitiveness of Kazakhstan's science in the field of renewable energy research, which is one of the important issues of humanity.

World reserves of oil, gas and coal are limited, and the intensity of their production is growing every year. Despite the benefits of nuclear energy, many countries are moving away from using it for safety reasons. The lack of energy carriers stimulates the search for new energy sources. A practically inexhaustible source of energy is the energy of the sun. The existing technologies for converting solar energy into chemical raw materials require significant development.

The project work of chemical researchers is aimed at developing effective photocatalysts for converting solar energy into renewable hydrogen, for each of which the efficiency of converting light energy into chemical energy, in the form of hydrogen, which in turn is a pure chemical raw material, will be calculated. For the photocatalytic synthesis of hydrogen, not only aqueous solutions of glycerol and triethanolamine that are actively used today, but also natural oils of vegetable origin will be used.

The developed technology of solid-phase mechanochemical synthesis of photocatalysts is economically profitable and economically advantageous in comparison with other methods of obtaining photocatalysts. Therefore, the resulting nanocomposites will have a low cost.

In the opinion of the developers, the hydrogen they create will in the future become an alternative product for replacing oil, which will help to solve the problem of not endless natural resources.

Kairzhan TUREZHANOV