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Piezo Crystals Harness Sound To Generate Hydrogen

Posted by timothy on from the what's-shakin'? dept.

MikeChino writes "Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have discovered that a mix of zinc oxide crystals, water, and noise pollution can efficiently produce hydrogen without the need for a dirty catalyst like oil. To generate the clean hydrogen, researchers produced a new type of zinc oxide crystals that absorb vibrations when placed in water. The vibrations cause the crystals to develop areas with strong positive and negative charges — a reaction that rips the surrounding water molecules and releases hydrogen and oxygen. The mechanism, dubbed the piezoelectrochemical effect, converts 18% of energy from vibrations into hydrogen gas (compared to 10% from conventional piezoelectric materials), and since any vibration can produce the effect, the system could one day be used to generate power from anything that produces noise — cars whizzing by on the highway, crashing waves in the ocean, or planes landing at an airport."

4 of 187 comments (clear)

  1. Re:This SOUNDS Like A Breakthrough! by sackvillian · · Score: 5, Informative

    But can it produce enough electricity to power a small radio that plays the music used to create the vibrations necessary to produce the electricity?

    No.

    Sincerely yours,

    The Second Law of Thermodynamics

    --
    Hey mate, spare a sig?
  2. Re:This SOUNDS Like A Breakthrough! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Your absolutely right, you're just getting bogged down with the pedantic ramblings of the Slashdot crowd.

    They're joking and arguing about a perpetual motion machine, nothing to do with reality...

  3. This gas can't be transported... by Genda · · Score: 3, Informative

    My question is this "If you're producing Hydrogen... aren't you also producing Oxygen at the very same time?" So here you are creating a combustible gas mixture in a stiochiometrically perfect balance to go BOOM-POW!!! The gases are created together, you can't easily separate them. You need to pump this straight into a combustion chamber or fuel cell, because it's ready, willing, and able to off the instant it's created. It cannot be transported anywhere.

  4. Re:Thermodynamics by WalksOnDirt · · Score: 5, Informative

    hydrogen gas... Which has a narrow fuel air mix

    I don't think so.

    Flammability Concentration Limits
    Hydrogen 4% to 75%
    Gasoline 1.4% to 7.6%

    The auto-ignition temperature is indeed higher for hydrogen, 500 Celsius compared to 280 for gasoline. I had not known that.

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