“这些正是我们发展真正的循环经济和可持续未来所需要的解决方案”

——Erwin Reisner

“These are the sorts of solutions we will need to develop a truly circular economy and sustainable future”

—— Erwin Reisner

研究人员开发出了一种浮动于水面的太阳能装置，可以将世界上任何地方受污染的水或海水转化为清洁的氢燃料和净化水。

A floating, solar-powered device that can turn contaminated water or seawater into clean hydrogen fuel and purified water, anywhere in the world, has been developed by researchers.

该装置由剑桥大学研究人员开发，可以在资源有限或离网的环境中使用，因为它适用于所有开放水源，而且不需要任何外部电源。

The device, developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge, could be useful in resource-limited or off-grid environments, since it works with any open water source and does not require any outside power.

该装置的灵感来源于光合作用，即植物将太阳光转化为有机物的过程。然而，不同于早期各版本的“人造叶子”，它并非利用清洁水源生成绿色氢能源，而是在受污染水体或海水中运作，在生成绿色氢能源的同时产出干净的饮用水。

It takes its inspiration from photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert sunlight into food. However, unlike earlier versions of the ‘artificial leaf’, which could produce green hydrogen fuel from clean water sources, this new device operates from polluted or seawater sources and can produce clean drinking water at the same time.

剑桥大学尤瑟夫哈米德化学系（Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry）Chanon Pornrungroj博士表示：“在一台装置中同时研发太阳能燃料生产和水净化是非常困难的。以日照让水分子分解为氢气和氧气往往需要在完全纯净的水中才能进行，因为任何污染物都可能污染催化剂或引起不必要的化学副反应。” 他本人同时也是该论文主要共同作者。

“Bringing together solar fuels production and water purification in a single device is tricky,” said Dr Chanon Pornrungroj from Cambridge’s Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, the paper’s co-lead author. “Solar-driven water splitting, where water molecules are broken down into hydrogen and oxygen, need to start with totally pure water because any contaminants can poison the catalyst or cause unwanted chemical side-reactions.”

Pornrungroj和Mohamad Annuar都是Erwin Reisner教授研究小组的成员，他们想出一个可以做到这一点的设计。

Pornrungroj and Mohamad Annuar, who are both members of Professor Erwin Reisner’s research group, came up with a design that did just that.

此外，这款新装置使用太阳能的效率更高。Mohamad Annuar表示：“光驱动的太阳能燃料制造过程仅使用了太阳光谱的一小部分，还有很多区域的光谱未被利用。”

In addition, the new device uses more of the Sun’s energy. “The light-driven process for making solar fuels only uses a small portion of the solar spectrum – there’s a whole lot of the spectrum that goes unused,” said Mohamad Annuar.

研究团队在浮动装置的顶部使用了一层白色的紫外线吸收层来为水分解产生氢气提供光照。太阳能光谱中未被利用的剩余光会被传输到设备底部，使水蒸发。

The team used a white, UV-absorbing layer on top of the floating device for hydrogen production via water splitting. The rest of the light in the solar spectrum is transmitted to the bottom of the device, which vaporises the water.

Pornrungroj表示：“这样，我们就更好地利用了光线，用蒸汽生产氢气，剩余的是水蒸气。我们就彻底实现了模仿真实的叶子，因为我们现在已经成功地加入了蒸腾作用的过程。”

“This way, we’re making better use of the light – we get the vapour for hydrogen production, and the rest is water vapour,” said Pornrungroj. “This way, we’re truly mimicking a real leaf, since we’ve now been able to incorporate the process of transpiration.”

这种仅利用太阳能就能同时生产清洁燃料和清洁水的装置可能有助于解决世界上许多地区面临的能源和水资源危机。例如，根据世界卫生组织的数据，使用“脏”燃料（如煤油）进行烹饪引起的室内空气污染每年造成300多万人死亡。使用绿色氢能源进行烹饪能够大幅度降低该死亡人数。全球仍有18亿人口家中缺乏安全的饮用水。

Mohamad Annuar 表示：“这个设计起来也很简单：只需要几步，我们就可以制造出能在各种水体表面工作的装置，”

“It’s such a simple design as well: in just a few steps, we can build a device that works well on water from a wide variety of sources,” said Mohamad Annuar.

Pornrungroj认为：“我们的装置对污染物耐受程度高，并且浮动于水面的设计使得催化剂基底能够在非常浑浊泥泞的水体中正常工作，它的适用性相当广泛。”

“It’s so tolerant of pollutants, and the floating design allows the substrate to work in very cloudy or muddy water,” said Pornrungroj. “It’s a highly versatile system.”

领导该项研究的Reisner教授表示:“虽然我们的装置目前只在理论上被证实是可行的，但这种装置的开发正是我们发展真正的循环经济和可持续未来所需要的解决方案。气候危机和与健康及污染相关的问题是高度关联的，如果能找到一种可同时解决这两方面问题的方案将为许多人带来颠覆性变革。”

“Our device is still a proof of principle, but these are the sorts of solutions we will need if we’re going to develop a truly circular economy and sustainable future,” said Reisner, who led the research. “The climate crisis and issues around pollution and health are closely related, and developing an approach that could help address both would be a game-changer for so many people.”

这项研究得到了多方支持，包括欧盟委员会“地平线2020”计划、欧洲研究委员会、剑桥基金会、Petronas教育赞助项目以及Winton可持续物理学项目。Erwin Reisner教授为圣约翰学院（St John’s College）院士。Chanon Pornrungroj 来自达尔文学院（Darwin College）， Ariffin Mohamad Annuar 来自克莱尔学院（Clare College）。

The research was supported in part by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme, The European Research Council, the Cambridge Trust, the Petronas Education Sponsorship Programme, and the Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability. Erwin Reisner is a Fellow of St John’s College. Chanon Pornrungroj is a member of Darwin College, and Ariffin Mohamad Annuar is a member of Clare College.