BAHAWALPUR:A team of students and teachers of the Institute of Physics, the Islamia University of Bahawalpur (IUB) conducted scientific experiments in the Cholistan desert under the headship of Director Institute of Physics Prof. Dr. Saeed Ahmad Buzdar.
The group from the Institute of Physics visited the IUB Bio-Diversity Park near Fort Derawar. The development of renewable energy sources and exploring more water resources is the need of time and keeping this in mind, two related experiments were performed.
One was the display of water splitting utilizing solar energy. Water splitting is the chemical reaction in which water is broken down into oxygen and hydrogen. Efficient and economical water splitting would be a technological breakthrough that could underpin a hydrogen economy, based on green hydrogen.
The second experiment was the production of water through the air using Peltier elements. The atmosphere contains a large amount of water in the form of vapor, moisture, etc. Within those amounts, almost 30% of the water is wasted. This amount of water can be used if we are able to extract the water that is present in the air in the form of moisture.
The project was an attempt to make a device that is capable of converting atmospheric moisture directly into usable and even drinking water, especially in an environment that is very close to nature, free from many external factors, and also in need of such products. Besides these two experiments, the students also collected desert plants for the green synthesis of nanoparticles.