Hematite, once regarded as a powerful tool by ancient shamans, and then disregarded as anything other than a shiny (and often magnetic) rock for many, many years, has once again been realized for its value in cultivating energy by modern scientists.
For many years, scientists have struggled to find an efficient method to split water to mine electron-rich hydrogen for clean energy. It had always been found that Hematite could work, but its low performance stopped it from being a solution to clean energy… until now.
By re-growing the minerals surface, a smoother version of hematite doubled the electrical yield, which then opened the door to harvesting energy using artificial photosynthesis. This was all published only in the last week in the journal Nature Communications.
