Artificial Leaf Being Developed at MIT

[Recusant]

"'Artificial leaf' makes fuel from sunlight" by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office

Researchers led by MIT professor Daniel Nocera have produced something they're calling an "artificial leaf": Like living leaves, the device can turn the energy of sunlight directly into a chemical fuel that can be stored and used later as an energy source.

The artificial leaf — a silicon solar cell with different catalytic materials bonded onto its two sides — needs no external wires or control circuits to operate. Simply placed in a container of water and exposed to sunlight, it quickly begins to generate streams of bubbles: oxygen bubbles from one side and hydrogen bubbles from the other. If placed in a container that has a barrier to separate the two sides, the two streams of bubbles can be collected and stored, and used later to deliver power: for example, by feeding them into a fuel cell that combines them once again into water while delivering an electric current.

It sounds like a practical application of this is down the road a ways, but it's another small ray of hope that we might develop usable alternatives to fossil fuels before the world comes crashing down on our, or our children's heads.

The 'artificial leaf,' a device that can harness sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen without needing any external connections, is seen with some real leaves, which also convert the energy of sunlight directly into storable chemical form.   
Photo: Dominick Reuter

A talk by Stephen Maldonado on "Solar to Chemical Energy Storage: Prospects for 'Artificial' Photosynthesis."

[Tank]

Very interesting.

[Sweetdeath]

We needed to get away from fossil fuel decades ago.  This is hopefully going to be one of many options!

Very cool indeed.

[Xjeepguy]

Wow, that's awesome. Thanks for sharing.

Things like this give me hope, that we could possibly make things better someday.

[hismikeness]

The neat energy manufacturing aside, the other function of an artificial leaf that will be useful is the malleability. If it's ever woven into clothing the special cleaning method would have to be called 'raking' right? 

[Sandra Craft]

It sounds like a practical application of this is down the road a ways, but it's another small ray of hope that we might develop usable alternatives to fossil fuels before the world comes crashing down on our, or our children's heads.

It might be a photo finish.

[KingPhilip]

I truly think it's going to be one of those things where, by the time humanity fully grasps how important this stuff is, it'll be far too late. I personally think that's why scientists are so excited about finding earth-like planets. They're some of the few who realize we'll be needing to relocate, and soonish.

[xSilverPhinx]

Not to be a pain and downsize this, but the day that they're able to produce sugars and not just the hydrolysis of water using an inexpensive plate made from abundant materials...that will be something. Calling it a leaf is going a bit too far...unless of course

Things like this give me hope, that we could possibly make things better someday.

It's the artificial food source for future artificial lifeforms. Would find its place neatly in a sci-fi story. 

[Recusant]

Ah, this thread . . .

I wonder how the brothers Ihateyoumike and hismikeness are doing.

Anyway, there has been occasional further mention of the artificial leaf concept: The project headed by Daniel Nocera got into the news again back in 2016, and I noted a generalized press release from Germany in 2017. Apparently researchers haven't given up on it yet--this is from Cambridge.

"'Artificial leaf' successfully produces clean gas" | ScienceDaily

A widely-used gas that is currently produced from fossil fuels can instead be made by an 'artificial leaf' that uses only sunlight, carbon dioxide and water, and which could eventually be used to develop a sustainable liquid fuel alternative to petrol.

The carbon-neutral device sets a new benchmark in the field of solar fuels, after researchers at the University of Cambridge demonstrated that it can directly produce the gas -- called syngas -- in a sustainable and simple way.

Rather than running on fossil fuels, the artificial leaf is powered by sunlight, although it still works efficiently on cloudy and overcast days. And unlike the current industrial processes for producing syngas, the leaf does not release any additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The results are reported in the journal Nature Materials.

Syngas is currently made from a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, and is used to produce a range of commodities, such as fuels, pharmaceuticals, plastics and fertilisers.

"You may not have heard of syngas itself but every day, you consume products that were created using it. Being able to produce it sustainably would be a critical step in closing the global carbon cycle and establishing a sustainable chemical and fuel industry," said senior author Professor Erwin Reisner from Cambridge's Department of Chemistry, who has spent seven years working towards this goal.

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[xSilverPhinx]

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why science is so important!

No! to cutting funding for science (looking at Trump's Bitch Bozonaro, the Putrid Turd)!
So many solutions to so many of the world's problems just waiting to be discovered and developed.

[Recusant]

Work on understanding how photosynthesis works may help advance engineered versions.

"Scientists unravel mystery of photosynthesis" | ScienceDaily

Plants have been harnessing the sun's energy for hundreds of millions of years.

Algae and photosynthetic bacteria have been doing the same for even longer, all with remarkable efficiency and resiliency.

It's no wonder, then, that scientists have long sought to understand exactly how they do this, hoping to use this knowledge to improve human-made devices such as solar panels and sensors.

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, working closely with collaborators at Washington University in St. Louis, recently solved a critical part of this age-old mystery, homing in on the initial, ultrafast events through which photosynthetic proteins capture light and use it to initiate a series of electron transfer reactions.

"In order to understand how biology fuels all of its engrained activities, you must understand electron transfer," said Argonne biophysicist Philip Laible. "The movement of electrons is crucial: it's how work is accomplished inside a cell."

In photosynthetic organisms, these processes begin with the absorption of a photon of light by pigments localized in proteins.

Each photon propels an electron across a membrane located inside specialized compartments within the cell.

"The separation of charge across a membrane -- and stabilization of it -- is critical as it generates energy that fuels cell growth," said Argonne biochemist Deborah Hanson.

The Argonne and Washington University research team has gained valuable insight on the initial steps in this process: the electron's journey.

Nearly 35 years ago, when the first structure of these types of complexes was unveiled, scientists were surprised to discover that after the absorption of light, the electron transfer processes faced a dilemma: there are two possible pathways for the electron to travel.

In nature, plants, algae and photosynthetic bacteria use just one of them -- and scientists had no idea why.

What they did know was that the propulsion of the electron across the membrane -- effectively harvesting the energy of the photon -- required multiple steps.

Argonne and Washington University scientists have managed to interfere with each one of them to change the electron's trajectory.

"We've been on this trail for more than three decades, and it is a great accomplishment that opens up many opportunities," said Dewey Holten, a chemist at Washington University.

[Continues . . .]

[billy rubin]

Nearly 35 years ago, when the first structure of these types of complexes was unveiled, scientists were surprised to discover that after the absorption of light, the electron transfer processes faced a dilemma: there are two possible pathways for the electron to travel.

In nature, plants, algae and photosynthetic bacteria use just one of them -- and scientists had no idea why.

[Recusant]

A good overview of some of the efforts in this field. Hat-tip to Lark for this one. 

"Creating fuel from thin air with artificial leaves" | BBC

The sun produces more than enough energy for human activities, but we still can't capture enough of it, points out Erwin Reisner, energy and sustainability professor at Cambridge University.

He heads a team of researchers trying to capture more of that free energy.

While solar panels have made big advances in recent years, becoming cheaper and more efficient, they just provide electricity, not storable liquid fuels, which are still in great demand.

[. . .]

Prof Reisner's team has worked on a number of approaches, including a system that mimics natural photosynthesis, using enzymes to split water and create hydrogen for fuel.

However, efficiency is still low and, as a gas, hydrogen is difficult to store.

Perhaps more promising in the long term is his team's recent development of a small device that converts sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and formic acid, a liquid fuel that has a high energy density.

The device contains a panel which sits in a bath of water and carbon dioxide. Under sunlight the panel releases electrons which combine with the carbon dioxide and the protons in the water to make formic acid.

"These systems are like panels or sheets. It's a very thin device - you can almost think of it as like a sheet of paper," says Prof Reisner.

Perhaps the biggest step forward with the device is the fact that it is standalone. It doesn't require an external power source, nor any top-ups of additional catalysts.

[Continues . . .]