(AUSTRALIA)

Researchers have developed a solar paint that can generate hydrogen – one of the cleanest sources of energy – from water vapour.

Developed by a team from RMIT University, a new compound in the paint absorbs and then splits water vapour into hydrogen and oxygen.

“We found that mixing the compound with titanium oxide particles leads to a sunlight-absorbing paint that produces hydrogen fuel from solar energy and moist air,” RMIT lead researcher Dr Torben Daeneke told RMIT news. “Our new development has a big range of advantages. There’s no need for clean or filtered water to feed the system. Any place that has water vapour in the air, even remote areas far from water, can produce fuel.”

Dr Daeneke’s co-worker, Professor Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh, labelled hydrogen as “the cleanest source of energy”.