Brief
OSU chemists create light‑driven crystal that splits water into hydrogen
The new material, called BVR‑19, converts solar energy into hydrogen without a costly metal catalyst, according to a study in JACS.
By Felo News Desk · Published
Researchers at Oregon State University have announced a porous crystal that uses sunlight to generate hydrogen from water, a development that could lower the cost of green hydrogen, scitechdaily.com reported on Oct. 11.
What happened
The team, led by chemist Kyriakos Stylianou, synthesized a family of metal‑organic frameworks (MOFs) and identified one variant, BVR‑19, that efficiently splits water when illuminated. The crystal’s structure features positively charged metal ions linked by organic molecules, creating nanoscale pores that facilitate the photochemical reaction. When light strikes the material, a temporary bond break between two sulfur atoms initiates the conversion of water molecules into hydrogen gas.
What the reports add
According to the article, the process does not require an added metal catalyst, which is typically expensive and limits scalability. Stylianou highlighted a price disparity: hydrogen produced from methane‑steam reforming costs about $1.50 per kilogram, whereas current green hydrogen costs roughly $5 per kilogram. The new crystal aims to narrow that gap by using only sunlight and water.
What was said
Stylianou told scitechdaily.com, “By changing the metal while keeping the rest of the material essentially the same, we discovered why some versions of the MOF work much better than others. These findings provide new design rules for creating more effective materials for solar fuel production.”
How it came about
The research builds on decades of work in MOF chemistry, with nearly 100,000 MOFs already synthesized and half‑a‑million more predicted. By focusing on light‑responsive frameworks, the OSU team hopes to translate laboratory efficiency into practical solar‑fuel systems that could serve fuel‑cell vehicles, ammonia production, metal refining and plastics manufacturing.
Key facts
- The crystal, named BVR‑19, uses sunlight to split water into hydrogen without a metal catalyst. (scitechdaily.com)
- Kyriakos Stylianou leads the Oregon State University team that developed BVR‑19. (scitechdaily.com)
- Current green hydrogen costs about $5 per kilogram, compared with $1.50 per kilogram for hydrogen from natural‑gas reforming. (scitechdaily.com)
- BVR‑19 is a metal‑organic framework with positively charged metal ions and nanoscale pores. (scitechdaily.com)
- The study was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. (scitechdaily.com)
Sources
- [1] scitechdaily.com — originally reported as “This Crystal Uses Sunlight To Turn Water Into Clean Hydrogen”
