Re: [Phys-l] MIT breakthrough in practical water electrolysis

[Roger Haar <haar@physics.arizona.edu>]

Hi,

	I have skimmed the article.  They are not doing electrolysis of water 
and only producing oxygen.  They are reporting an improved 
catalyst/electrode for producing O2. (They seem to have an improved H2 
electrode as well.) As I noted earlier, they have a system that directly 
produces O2 at the electrode.  This requires that they break down two 
water molecules at the same time.  Producing one O2 and two H2's at the 
electrodes uses less energy then producing two O's and four H's which is 
what usually happens.

Sincerely,
 Roger Haar


Jack Uretsky wrote:
> Hi all-
>  	Has anybody read the article?  For starters, how do you produce 
> Oxygen from water without, at the same time, producing hydrogen?
>  				Regards,
>  					Jack
>
>
>
> On Tue, 5 Aug 2008, Bob Sciamanda wrote:
>
> > Check out this URL and the current issue of Science:
> >
> > http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/oxygen-0731.html
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