Photoelectrolysis

**Photoelectrolysis** occurs in a [|photoelectrochemical cell] when [|light] is used for [|electrolysis]. In other words, photoelectrolysis is the conversion of light into a [|current], and then the division of a [|molecule] using that current. Photoelectrolysis' main attractiveness to many [|engineers] and [|technologists] is its potential to divide [|water] into [|hydrogen] and [|oxygen]. (In this case, the process is sometimes known as [|water splitting] or **splitting water**.) According to Crabtree, //et al.//, achieving a [|hydrogen economy] requires deriving hydrogen efficiently and inexpensively from natural sources without using [|fossil fuels]. [|[1]] Photoelectrolysis is often seen as having the potential to fulfill that need. (In contrast, [|steam reforming] usually or always uses a fossil fuel to obtain hydrogen.) Photoelectrolysis is sometimes known colloquially as the //hydrogen [|holy grail] // for its potential to yield a viable alternative to [|petroleum] as a source of [|energy] ; such an energy source would supposedly come without the [|sociopolitically] undesirable effects of extracting and using petroleum. Some researchers have practiced photoelectrolysis by means of a nanoscale process. In fact, Crabtree, //et al.// claimed that with suitable [|semiconductors], nanoscale photoelectrolysis of water could someday reach greater efficiency than that of "traditional" photoelectrolysis. Semiconductors with bandgaps smaller than 1.7 [|electronvolts] would ostensibly be required for efficient nanoscale photoelectrolysis using light from the [|Sun].

