Water-Based 'Artificial Leaf' Produces Electricity

[Tank]

Mimicking Nature, Water-Based 'Artificial Leaf' Produces Electricity

ScienceDaily (Sep. 24, 2010) â€" A team led by a North Carolina State University researcher has shown that water-gel-based solar devices -- "artificial leaves" -- can act like solar cells to produce electricity. The findings prove the concept for making solar cells that more closely mimic nature. They also have the potential to be less expensive and more environmentally friendly than the current standard-bearer: silicon-based solar cells...

Given the waste products related to the production of conventional silicon solar cells this could be a very important breakthrough.

[Will]

That's incredible. I might have to be an early adopter on this one.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Muy cool. Thanks for the info!

[Dretlin]

"Water-Based 'Artificial Leaf' Produces Electricity"

That is a very odd sentence. Interesting article!

[Prometheus]

This is awsome. I was trying to get a Biochemist buddy of mine to start working with me on a patent for something very similar to this two years ago. He thought i was nuts . I posted the link to him. We didn't have the time or resources honestly but i would love to try working on stuff like this as a hobby one day. even if you fail you still had a little fun.

[Tank]

Efficient, Inexpensive Plastic Solar Cells Coming Soon

ScienceDaily (Oct. 11, 2010) â€" Physicists at Rutgers University have discovered new properties in a material that could result in efficient and inexpensive plastic solar cells for pollution-free electricity production...

Added due to comparable subject matter.

[DropLogic]

We need what Doc Brown had in Back to the Future 2.  The garbage converter.  We need someway to use all this garbage we've amassed.  Could get energy for YEARS from the material stuck in the North Pacific Gyre.

[Thumpalumpacus]

We need what Doc Brown had in Back to the Future 2.  The garbage converter.  We need someway to use all this garbage we've amassed.  Could get energy for YEARS from the material stuck in the North Pacific Gyre.

There's already an established method: incinerators.

Also, another way is to recover and use the methane produced by landfills.

[Asmodean]

We need what Doc Brown had in Back to the Future 2.  The garbage converter.  We need someway to use all this garbage we've amassed.  Could get energy for YEARS from the material stuck in the North Pacific Gyre.

There's already an established method: incinerators.

Also, another way is to recover and use the methane produced by landfills.

Change one pollution to another meanwhile making them megawatts. I love technology  

[DropLogic]

We need what Doc Brown had in Back to the Future 2.  The garbage converter.  We need someway to use all this garbage we've amassed.  Could get energy for YEARS from the material stuck in the North Pacific Gyre.

There's already an established method: incinerators.

Also, another way is to recover and use the methane produced by landfills.

Change one pollution to another meanwhile making them megawatts. I love technology  

Well...you could technically run the exhaust through water to diffuse it even further...but you still end up with toxic water that needs to go somewhere.  We're pretty stuck with all this solid waste we've created.  I think we should load it onto a rocket and fire it into the sun....

[PoopShoot]

Incinerators have afterburners that burn the exhaust waste hot enough to break it down into base elements.