Water falls on Earth every day as rain, and now scientists seem to have found a way of using it to create renewable electricity

In an experiment, one tube produced 440 microwatts. When the researchers used four tubes at once, they could power 12 LEDs for 20 seconds.

  • ilinamorato@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    4 days ago

    Charge separation is a real thing. It’s the opposite of how an LED works. It’s not very efficient in that direction, but it’s real.

    It works with electrons being excited by photons, though.

    What that has to do with the interface of water and air, I can’t figure out.

    • Aatube@kbin.melroy.orgOP
      5·
      5 days ago

      third paragraph:

      Normally, when we generate electricity from water, we use the movement of lots of it to drive a turbine in a river, the sea or even in drinking water pipes. But water flowing over an electrically conductive surface can generate its own electrical charge through a process called charge separation. This is driven by positively charged protons of the water molecules staying in the liquid and negatively charged electrons being donated to the surface, much as you can generate static electricity by rubbing a balloon on your hair.

      charge separation is a lot more than just photoinduced charge separation

      • ilinamorato@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        4 days ago

        If that was a real thing, at least in charges strong enough to harness for work, surely we wouldn’t ground sensitive electronics to metal water pipes. And metal fuel containers would be spontaneously exploding all the time. I can’t find any evidence of this phenomenon anywhere but in this article. Can you provide a source?