Question

Some fuel cells are powered by hydrogen. Scientists are looking into the decomposition of water (H2O) to make hydrogen fuel with the help of the Sun’s energy. What challenge do scientists face with this task?

Answer 1

There are some challenges that scientist will face, the sun's energy can only be captured by solar panels to produce a voltage and make a current flow. That current can then be used to decompose water into hydrogen and oxygen some challenges is that there will be no enough sunny days, insufficient solar panel system that can power the decomposing device.

Answer 2

The answer is A : Decomposing water requires a high activation energy. This is why the fuel cells require a highly efficient photo-absorbing material such as indium phosphide and silicon for the photoelectrochemical (PEC) process. They ar able to efficiently absorb energy from the sun to enable the splitting of water-based electrolyte to one of its components; hydrogen. However, these semiconductor photo-absorbers are unstable in the electrolyte as they are easily oxidized and degraded during the electrolysis process.