AN ARTIFICIAL LEAF INVENTED WHICH CAN SOLVE POWER CRISIS.

Scientists have created the world’s first practical artificial leaf
that can turn sunlight and water into energy, which they claim could
pave the way for a cheaper source of power.

A team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) says that the
artificial leaf from silicon, electronics and various catalysts which
spur chemical reactions within the device, can use sunlight to break
water into hydrogen and oxygen which can then be used to create
electricity in a separate fuel cell.

“A practical artificial leaf has been one of the Holy Grails of
science for decades. We believe we have done it. And placed in a
gallon of water and left in sun, these artificial leaves could provide
a home in the developing world with basic electricity for a day,”
Daniel Nocera, who led the team, said.

He added: “Our goal is to make each home its own power station. One
can envision villages in India and Africa not long from now purchasing
an affordable basic power system based on this technology.”

Both teams produced devices that combine a standard silicon solar cell
with a catalyst developed three years ago by professor Daniel Nocera.
When submerged in water and exposed to sunlight, the devices cause
bubbles of oxygen to separate out of the water.

The next step to producing a full, usable artificial leaf, explains
Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy and professor of
chemistry, will be to integrate the final ingredient: an additional
catalyst to bubble out the water’s hydrogen atoms. In the current
devices, hydrogen atoms are simply dissociated into the solution as
loose protons and electrons. If a catalyst could produce fully formed
hydrogen molecules (H2), the molecules could be used to generate
electricity or to make fuel for vehicles. Realization of that step,
Nocera says, will be the subject of a forthcoming paper.

PUBLISHED BY NITIKA  PAYAL