| 摘要 |
<p>An apparatus and method for performing electrolysis on materials such as water, thereby electrically separating the electrolyte into its elemental components. More specifically, according to a preferred aspect of the instant invention, there is provided an apparatus for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen that uses a specially prepared cathode in conjunction with incident light energy to increase the efficiency of that process. A preferred embodiment of this apparatus uses the photo collector/cathode (27) which comprises a thin layer of metal, preferably nickel, deposited by electroplating or a similar technique onto a conductive surface (e.g., a sheet of copper metal). During the electrolysis process, the cathode (27) is irradiated with light (34), thereby reducing the amount of electrical energy necessary to separate a given quantity of electrolytic material.</p> |
