
Arrays of tree-like nanowires consisting of Si trunks and TiO2 branches facilitate solar water-splitting in a fully integrated artificial photosynthesis system.
Berkeley Lab Researchers Report First Fully Integrated Artificial Photosynthesis Nanosystem
In the wake of the sobering news that atmospheric carbon dioxide is now at its highest level in at least three million years, an important advance in the race to develop carbon-neutral renewable energy sources has been achieved. Scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have reported the first fully integrated nanosystem for artificial photosynthesis. While “artificial leaf” is the popular term for such a system, the key to this success was an “artificial forest.”
“Similar to the chloroplasts in green plants that carry out photosynthesis, our artificial photosynthetic system is composed of two semiconductor light absorbers, an interfacial layer for charge transport, and spatially separated co-catalysts,” says Peidong Yang, a chemist with Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division, who led this research. “To facilitate solar water- splitting in our system, we synthesized tree-like nanowire heterostructures, consisting of silicon trunks and titanium oxide branches. Visually, arrays of these nanostructures very much resemble an artificial forest.”
Yang, who also holds appointments with the University of California Berkeley’s Chemistry Department and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, is the corresponding author of a paper describing this research in the journal NANO Letters. The paper is titled “A Fully Integrated Nanosystem of Semiconductor Nanowires for Direct Solar Water Splitting.” Co-authors are Chong Liu, Jinyao Tang, Hao Ming Chen and Bin Liu.
Solar technologies are the ideal solutions for carbon-neutral renewable energy – there’s enough energy in one hour’s worth of global sunlight to meet all human needs for a year. Artificial photosynthesis, in which solar energy is directly converted into chemical fuels, is regarded as one of the most promising of solar technologies. A major challenge for artificial photosynthesis is to produce hydrogen cheaply enough to compete with fossil fuels. Meeting this challenge requires an integrated system that can efficiently absorb sunlight and produce charge-carriers to drive separate water reduction and oxidation half-reactions.
“In natural photosynthesis the energy of absorbed sunlight produces energized charge-carriers that execute chemical reactions in separate regions of the chloroplast,” Yang says. “We’ve integrated our nanowire nanoscale heterostructure into a functional system that mimics the integration in chloroplasts and provides a conceptual blueprint for better solar-to-fuel conversion efficiencies in the future.”
The Latest Bing News on:
Artificial photosynthesis
- New process to recycle polyolefinic plastics at low temperatureon January 20, 2021 at 1:52 pm
Researchers in Japan have used a novel catalyst process to recycle polyolefinic plastics into chemicals. The problem being solved is that polyolefinic plastics have physical properties that make it ...
- Artificial Photosynthesis Market Analysis 2020 (By Segment, Key Players and Applications) And Forecasts to 2026on January 6, 2021 at 4:01 pm
The Artificial Photosynthesis is a process that converts and stores the energy from sunlight in the chemical bonds of a fuel. It replicates the natural process of photosynthesis. It could offer ...
- Harnessing the hidden powers of plants could help fix the climateon January 5, 2021 at 8:22 am
Artificial photosynthesis is ten times more efficient than natural photosynthesis. In 2021 we will begin to explore practical ways to scale up the technology. In the short term, this will lead to ...
- Catalyst transforms plastic waste to valuable ingredients at low temperatureon January 5, 2021 at 7:37 am
associate professor in the Research Center for Artificial Photosynthesis in the Advanced Research Institute for Natural Science and Technology in Osaka City University, and Keiichi Tomishige ...
- Catalyst transforms plastic waste to valuable ingredients at low temperatureon January 5, 2021 at 7:27 am
"Plastics are essential materials for our life because they bring safety and hygiene to our society," said paper co-authors Masazumi Tamura, associate professor in the Research Center for Artificial ...
- Artificial photosynthesis: The two-in-one technology that could save the planeton December 18, 2020 at 4:00 pm
Alex Reis In a previous life, Alex was a researcher in the University of Newcastle in the field of cell and molecular biology, following a PhD in embryology looking at cow ovaries! After a slight ...
- Japanese Researchers Pave Way for Artificial Photosynthesison December 17, 2020 at 10:00 am
Unlimited access to our free news articles Unlimited access to our free webinars, white papers, and videos Special offers and discounts on Events and Squared Updates on breaking news and current ...
- Researchers drive artificial photosynthesis energy conversion rate higheron August 21, 2020 at 5:46 am
Chinese researchers have developed an artificial photosynthetic system with solar-to-fuel conversion efficiency in excess of 20 percent, China Science Daily reported Thursday. Plants transform solar ...
- Generalized strategy for small-molecule-functionalized electrodes exhibitingon August 6, 2020 at 1:37 pm
reactions were carried out in a CEM Discover SP system. UV-vis spectra were recorded on an Agilent Technologies Model 8454 diode-array spectrophotometer. SEM images were taken using a JEOL 6360 LV SEM ...
- A platform to showcase my potentialon August 9, 2019 at 1:55 pm
Liam Smith PhD student, University of Manchester MSc(Res) Chemistry Liam studied the fundamental chemistry behind artificial photosynthesis and solar energy conversion in our Lord Porter Ultrafast ...
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Artificial photosynthesis
The Latest Bing News on:
Artificial forest
- How Geospatial AI Leads to Smart Urban Ecosystemson January 21, 2021 at 1:35 am
The possibilities of geoAI for monitoring Mother Nature are limitless according to Dr Nadina Galle, ecological engineer and entrepreneur dedicated ...
- ZIM cooperation network on AI-based agricultural robotics launched: Artificial intelligence for sustainable agricultureon January 20, 2021 at 5:10 am
Zentrum für Agrarlandschaftsforschung (ZALF) e.V. The recently approved ZIM cooperation network "DeepFarmbots" met virtually for its official kick-off on November 25. The central goal of the network ...
- Appreciating a flower's texture, color, and shape leads to better drone landingson January 19, 2021 at 2:46 pm
Researchers present an optical flow-based learning process that allows robots to estimate distances through the visual appearance (shape, color, texture) of the objects in view. This artificial ...
- Cities can help migrating birds on their way by planting more trees and turning lights off at nighton January 19, 2021 at 1:50 pm
Light pollution, such as that from cities, can severely disorient migratory birds and make it hard for them to navigate.
- Agriculture CIO says TMF, centers of excellence sped up Farmers.gov upgrades by yearson January 19, 2021 at 8:54 am
USDA CIO Gary Washington said modernizing IT means better customer experience for employees and stakeholders in the field.
- Forest Green sharing taste of matchday with Ocado linkon January 19, 2021 at 3:08 am
Fans may not be able to watch football at Forest Green Rovers but they are able to tuck into matchday food after the world's first vegan club joined forces with Ocado.
- Conservation Biologist Murdered In Colombia Saved Two Specieson January 18, 2021 at 8:58 am
One man’s lifelong dedication to conserve two endangered species helped inspire a huge international conservation effort in Colombia ...
- In rural Colorado, a growing push to preserve dark skies as artificial light spills out of citieson January 17, 2021 at 5:00 am
The push in Colorado to designate largescale dark sky preserves, and reduce urban light pollution, is gaining momentum amid greater pandemic-driven focus on a long-neglected part of the ...
- Forest Agostinellion January 13, 2021 at 8:58 pm
EconoTimes is a fast growing non-partisan source of news and intelligence on global economy and financial markets, providing timely, relevant, and critical insights for market professionals and those ...
- How Explainable Artificial Intelligence Can Help Humans Innovateon January 13, 2021 at 9:57 am
By peering into the AI black box, we can uncover and teach people new facts about the world that have not yet been discovered, leading to new innovations.