New water splitting technology created

REHOVOT, Israel, April 8 (UPI) -- Scientists at Israel's Weizmann Institute say they have developed a new water splitting technology that eliminates the need for a sacrificial chemical.

Professor David Milstein and colleagues said their new technology achieved a bond generation between oxygen atoms and defined the mechanism by which it takes place.

Discovery of an efficient artificial catalyst for the sunlight-driven splitting of water into oxygen and hydrogen is a major goal of renewable clean energy research, institute officials said. The researchers said they plan to create such a catalytic system, bringing those in the field of alternative energy an important step closer to realizing that goal.

The complex research, which included Stephan Kohl, Leonid Schwartsburd, Yehoshoa Ben-David, Lev Weiner, Leonid Konstantinovski, Linda Shimon and Mark Iron, appeared in the journal Science.