Is it possible to extract oxygen from water

But now a new study, published in Nature Communications , shows that it is possible to produce hydrogen for fuel and oxygen for life from water alone using a semiconductor material and sunlight or star light in zero gravity—making sustained space travel a real possibility. Using the unbounded resource of the sun to power our everyday life is one of the biggest challenges on Earth.

As we are slowly moving away from oil towards renewable sources of energy, researchers are interested in the possibility of using hydrogen as fuel. The best way to do this would be by splitting water H2O into its constituents: hydrogen and oxygen.

This is possible using a process known as electrolysis , which involves running a current through a water sample containing some soluble electrolyte.

This breaks down the water into oxygen and hydrogen, which are released separately at the two electrodes. While this method is technically possible, it has yet to become readily available on Earth as we need more hydrogen related infrastructure , such as hydrogen refilling stations, to scale it up. Hydrogen and oxygen produced in this way from water could also be used as fuel on a spacecraft.

Launching a rocket with water would in fact be a lot safer than launching it with additional rocket fuel and oxygen on board, which can be explosive. Once in space, special technology could split the water into hydrogen and oxygen which in turn could be used to sustain life or to power electronics via fuel cells. There are two options for doing this. One involves electrolysis as we do on Earth, using electrolytes and solar cells to capture sunlight and convert this into a current.

The energy of a photon gets absorbed by an electron in the material which then jumps, leaving behind a hole. The free electron can react with protons which make up the atomic nucleus along with neutrons in water to form hydrogen.

Meanwhile, the hole can absorb electrons from water to form protons and oxygen. The process can also be reversed. Recombination forms only water as a product—meaning the water can also be recycled.

This is key to long-distance space travel. The process using photo catalysts is the best option for space travel as the equipment weighs much less than the one needed for electrolysis. In theory, it should work easily. The authors observed that the developed artificial gill system extracted enough dissolved oxygen from water. Consequently, the tag beetle was able to breathe and survive for more than 60h under water. However, the accumulation of carbon dioxide over time was observed even though it minimally contributed to the survival of the insect.

In summary, the study reported successfully developed an artificial gill system both theoretically and experimentally.

The system does not require external energy sources thus have enhanced efficiency and portability. In general, the Korean study will pave way for the advancement of artificial gill technology to permit humans to breathe underwater without the need for scuba gear. About the author Jongwan Lee received his B. Currently, his research interests focus on not only the fabrication of functional membranes but also their application and integration into the multiscale fluidic devices.

He received his B. S in and M. He stated his independent research career at KIMM in He obtained his Ph. Currently, he focuses on the development of pretreatment processing of water including electrolysis, separation of dissolved gases from water using hollow fiber membrane modules and biomechanics for the underwater breathing device.

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