To accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to sustainable energy, researchers at the Solar Fuels Group, in collaboration with Hydrofuel Canada Incorporated, are spearheading advancements in hydrogen-based energy carriers powered by sunlight. In a recent article titled “Let’s Get Cracking – Solar Ethene and Hydrogen,” Geoff highlights a groundbreaking study led by Rui and colleagues, published in Nature Energy.
This work showcases the remarkable potential of solar-driven ethane cracking to produce two critical products: hydrogen—an abundant, clean energy carrier for the future—and ethene, the most widely used organic compound globally. Geoff emphasizes the “solar advantage” of this approach, which dramatically reduces the extreme temperatures required by conventional fossil-fueled processes by leveraging light-driven surface-frustrated Lewis pairs (SFLPs) on a LaMn1-xCuxO3 photocatalyst developed by Rui.
This breakthrough not only marks a pivotal step in sustainable hydrogen production, but also opens the door to exciting new avenues for the photo-reforming of hydrogen-rich small molecules. The discovery represents a leap forward in solar fuels research, unlocking a wealth of possibilities for future energy solutions. For the full story, see Matter and Nature Energy.