Atomically Thin Film Has Potential for Water Splitting

....requiring conventionally generated electricity just the same as the more efficient and more expensive platinum catalysts normally used. Why oh why do I find headlines like politics???

I'm immediately skeptical of this entire article just from the opening obfuscations. Molybdenum sulfide is a molecule not an element. This film can be one molecule thick. Since each of these molecules requires three atoms, I doubt that it can be one atom thick.

As for the electrical efficiency, a simple numeric scale of the relative efficiency would tell so much. If a platinum catalyst takes 1.00 joule but this requires 1.01 joule for the same amount of hydrogen to be produced then this is a great find. If instead this requires 100 joules for the same amount then I say "piffle".

I've read this about the one molecule thickness film, which reminded me of an experiment I did in my high school freshmen (9th grade) biology class.

What it was we took what was a 16" pizza pan, whichj we put in believe water to cover the bottom, and then we put a small amount (I think about one drop) of Oleic acid (Fatty (oil) Acid)). This drop spread out in an involute way.

Our Biology Teacher said, that if you took the volume of the Oleic Acid that you used, and if somehow you could measure the circumference of the oil slick, you could figure out the size of that molecule, because that slick of Oleic Acid it made on top of the water was one molecule thick.

Now, did my memory after 40 years determinate, or as a 13 year old did I misunderstood the teacher?

That's what this article reminded me of.

I presume this to be plausible but with a few critical attributes that must be known. First that to at least one order of magnitude the mass of this nebulous "one drop" can be found. This combined with the atomic mass will identify how many molecules exist in the experiment. Second, that the sample is relatively pure. Third and most importantly, when Oleic acid spreads out on water to the maximum area it can that this must be one, two, or whatever number of molecules thick. This last aspect I'm not

As far as the amount used, I really don't recall, but I also recall the instructor also mentioning the limitations of this experiment is the capability's to accurately measure this. It was mostly a demonstration.

The experiment itself was more like a demonstration to get the students thinking on data collection and it's limitations to set-up future experiments..... nothing more. We basically had no results or data to report only to think ahead.

It was a experiment in High School for Freshman Biology that this article reminded me of.