artificial leaf makes fuel from sunlight

The artificial leaf, a device that can harness sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen without needing any external connections, have been developed by a team led by MIT professor Daniel Nocera. Like living leaves, they can convert the energy of sunlight directly into storable chemical form which can be used later as an energy source.

The device is in fact a silicon solar cell with different catalytic materials bonded onto its two sides; needing 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.

Nocera sees a future in which individual homes could be equipped with solar-collection systems based on this principle: Panels on the roof could use sunlight to produce hydrogen and oxygen that would be stored in tanks, and then fed to a fuel cell whenever electricity is needed. Such systems, Nocera hopes, could be made simple and inexpensive enough so that they could be widely adopted throughout the world, including many areas that do not presently have access to reliable sources of electricity.

So next time you mindlessly pluck leaves off a plant, in anger or in disgust or in romance, just think about how much energy you will be wasting in the process! via.

Technorati Tags: artificial leaf,harness sunlight,splitting water,current research in mit,daniel nocera,cheap electricity,alternative energy,leaf energy,how plants generate energy,future of energy

Comments

this symbol is called a lemniscate, and other facts

The technical term for your foot "falling asleep" is "taresthesia". "Pins and needles" is really called "paresthesia". Great Britain has invaded about 90% of the world's countries. There's a brand of hand sanitizer called "Maybe You Touched Your Genitals". There was a hoax that the world was ending in 1806 because someone wrote "Christ is coming" on eggs, that were later stuffed into a hen. Gary Numan is actually 13 days older than Gary Oldman. There is a word in the English language with only one vowel, which occurs six times: Indivisibility. Los Angeles's full name is 'El Pueblo de Nuestra la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula'. Polyamorous people have invented a word to indicate the opposite feeling of jealousy - compersion. The Macrocilix maia moth confuses predators with wing patterns that mimic two flies eating bird poop. It even releases a pungent odor to drive home the dec

abort, retry, ignore poem

The infamous Abort, Retry, Ignore message box of Windows, with no option given to close it. Found this classic and fun poem about the "Abort, Retry, Ignore" message. I have been able to trace back the source to Annoyances.org. Here it is: Once upon a midnight dreary, fingers cramped and vision bleary, System manuals piled high and wasted paper on the floor, Longing for the warmth of bed sheets, still I sat there doing spreadsheets. Having reached the bottom line I took a floppy from the drawer, I then invoked the SAVE command and waited for the disk to store, Only this and nothing more. Deep into the monitor peering, long I sat there wond'ring, fearing,  Doubting, while the disk kept churning, turning yet to churn some more.  But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token.  "Save!" I said, "You cursed mother! Save my data from before!"  One thing did the phosphors answer, only this and nothing more,  Just, "Abort

an inflating flashbag

This is a flash drive. A flashbag, more accurately. When it is empty, it is slim and as data is filled into it, the bag starts to inflate until it is full. How ingenious! The creators have applied micro- pumps to achieve this, as stated in their site . When the device is about to blow off, it gives a message - "There is not enough free space". At times when it is not plugged in, it remains inflated relative to the amount of data it is holding. There are other innovative products from the creators of flashbag - such as C'ALL future phone , Balloophone , AllTunes , GMEA , Trings and Remobeads . Great, PlusMinus ! Kudos to your grey cells.

pushmind publishing

Search This Blog