A research team comprised of Chinese and Russian scientists have recently developed a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to lift efficiency to convert sunlight into hydrogen energy, a method that could help Russia and China enter a new era of clean energy and help both countries take a leading position in the industry.

Scientists from Russia's national research-oriented Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU), China's Shihezi University, and China's Wuhan University of Geosciences say they have found an inexpensive and environmentally friendly way to treat a popular photocatalyst material. 

The findings were published in the scientific journal Applied Catalysis B-environmental.

Scientists said that they have found a method to change the microstructure of carbon nitride (an important photocatalytic material) by treating carbon nitride with water at high temperature to form porous nanolayers of oxygen-containing molecules.

Raul Rodriguez, a professor from Tomsk Polytechnic University's Research Faculty of Chemistry and Biomedical Technology said that Carbon nitride is a promising and inexpensive material that can be easily synthesized from urea or other nitrogen-carbon compounds by high-temperature reactions. 

“After steam and high-temperature treatments the material will have better performance in generating hydrogen from sunlight,” he said.

China-Russia energy cooperation is quickly becoming one of the biggest areas of bilateral cooperation.

China-Russia bilateral trade in 2021 grew 35.9 percent year-on-year, reaching $146.8 billion, exceeding the threshold of $140 billion for the first time, an all-time high, official data showed. The two nations have set a goal of reaching $200 billion in bilateral trade by 2024.

Global Times