For decades, leaders have pointed to the prospect of a hydrogen economy as a promising replacement for a world energy system still largely dependent upon fossil fuels. The supply of these fuels are dwindling and their combustion is linked to a range of pollution and global climate concerns. The promise has a luster to it: it’s non-polluting (combustion of hydrogen gives of simple water vapor as a by-product), and given how much water we’re surrounded by, supply would never be an issue.
But as is often the case, there’s a catch and, in the case of hydrogen, the challenge has been the matter of separating water into its elemental components of hydrogen and oxygen. A highly stable molecule, water requires a lot of energy input to break it down into the separate gases, so the quest continues for how to achieve hydrogen production in an efficient and sustainable way.
Once again researchers turn to nature for inspiration, and as Science Daily reports, the humble leaf may point the way. In a similar vein to a recent Tonic article highlighting the mimicking of photosynthesis as way to produce hydrocarbons, a research team at Shanghai Jiaotong University in China has now applied what we’ve learned about the biochemical and optical functions of leaf cells to cracking the tough nut that is the water molecule.
The research team’s “artificial inorganic leaf” involves the physical rearrangement of titanium dioxide into structures that mirror those of actual leaves that are responsible for capturing sunlight and putting it to work. Initial testing of the artificial leaf structures, according to Science Daily, is promising: leaf-mimicking rearrangement of the titanium dioxide renders the material far more effective at separating water into its two separate components. Embedding the structures with platinum nanoparticles cranks up the effectiveness another ten fold.
Presenting his team’s innovation at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) held last week in San Francisco, Tongxiang Fan spoke of the role that natural systems will continue to play in our search for new, clean energy developments:
“Our results may represent an important first step towards the design of novel artificial solar energy transduction systems based on natural paradigms, particularly based on exploring and mimicking the structural design. Nature still has much to teach us, and human ingenuity can modify the principles of natural systems for enhanced utility.”
Photo by seeks2dreak via Flickr.