Making a breakthrough in research is a group of scientists who have developed an artificial leaf that is capable of harnessing light to split water and generate hydrogen. Scientists at the State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China have come up with a method of imitating plants mechanism to produce hydrogen.
artificial leaf
Just the way plant leaves capture sun’s energy to produce food with central step involves splitting water molecules and creating hydrogen ions, researchers hope to do the same by copying the elaborate architectures of green leaves. The scientists used several types of leaves as a template, including the grape-leaved anemone. The leaves were first treated with dilute hydrochloric acid, allowing them to replace magnesium atoms, which form a crucial part of plants' photosynthetic machinery.
The next step includes drying of the leaves and heating them to 500 C° to burn away most of the remaining plant material and leaving behind a crystallized titanium dioxide framework with the leaves' natural structures. Titanium dioxide commonly used in solar cells to boost their efficiency, catalyses the splitting of water molecules in the leaf. The replica also includes structures called thykaloids, which increase the surface area available for photosynthesis and are just 10 nanometers thick. These features make the artificial leaves produce hydrogen more efficiently.
Via: NewScientist
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