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Plants apparently have a lot to teach us about green energy.
Researchers around the world are investing time and energy in a process called artificial photosynthesis. It sounds a lot like the way it sounds. The engineering devices use inputs such as sunlight, water and carbon dioxide (CO2) and produce carbohydrates and oxygen, which can be used as fuel .
If successful, artificial photosynthesis would be a win-win solution – it could provide a source of renewable energy and use sequestered CO2 from fossil fuel plants. We are not there yet, but the progress made over the last decade has revived scientific research into an effective technique of artificial photosynthesis.
Currently, researchers at Cambridge University have developed a similar method for harnessing the energy of the sun. By combining organic and synthetic parts in a process called "semi-artificial" photosynthesis, they have developed a proof of concept that can divide water into hydrogen and oxygen using modified photosynthetic mechanisms of plants. Their hope is that this technique can be applied to strengthen solar energy systems. They detailed their research in an article recently published in the journal Nature Energy.
"Semi-artificial photosynthesis is an emerging field that bridges the gap between synthetic biology and materials science for sustainable energy conversion and storage," said Katarzyna Sokół, Ph.D. of Cambridge. student and first author of the newspaper, told Digital Tends. "This new field combines beneficial components of artificial systems such as electrodes, nanomaterials, synthetic dyes and polymers with nature's biocatalysts, such as enzymes, for the synthesis of solar fuels, such as hydrogen.
The problem of direct photosynthesis is that it is often limited by the use of synthetic catalysts to separate hydrogen and oxygen. These can be both toxic and expensive. In the Cambridge study, researchers use organic enzymes to overcome this obstacle.
The semi-artificial photosynthesis device combines synthetic parts that are easy to tune and handle with relatively effective organic catalysts found in plants. The result is "is a model system for building semi-artificial photosynthetic devices relevant for the conversion of solar energy and storage in the form of fuels, such as hydrogen," explained Sokół.
She added that the system is a proof of concept and that it is too fragile for current applications of large-scale solar technology. In the future, the research team will look to find out if they can replace the fragile enzyme with more robust and stable photosynthetic cells.
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