Hydrogen fuel is very promising. Although there is a large amount of hydrogen in air and water, the problem is how to extract it. Researchers have developed a method to extract hydrogen from water using aluminum nanoparticles without additional energy input. However, it does require gallium to carry out the reaction. The response is not unknown (see video below), but the new study has some interesting twists.
Of course, aluminum is cheap and abundant. Gallium, not too much, but this process allows the recovery and reuse of gallium, so it is more cost-effective. This process is being patented, and of course, the real trick is to make aluminum nanoparticles. But if you have, it’s a simple way to extract hydrogen from water at room temperature, without additional energy. Since the reactions of generating alumina and releasing hydrogen and gallium are well known, the practical research here seems to be to determine the optimal performance of aluminum and the ratio of aluminum to gallium.
Although gallium is not a common item in a typical hacker’s Studio – unless you count the substances in Semiconductors – it is not expensive and relatively easy to handle. However, there is not so much hydrogen, so if you decide to use this method to produce hydrogen, be careful!
We have seen gallium robots and even antennas. So if you do get some liquid metal, there are many experiments to try.