Harvard University developed artificial photosynthetic bionic leaves with higher performance than true leaves

Taking advantage of a bacterium capable of consuming hydrogen, a cobalt system separates water into hydrogen, oxygen and a pair of electrodes, Harvard scientists have successfully developed an artificial leaf with the ability to metabolize Sunlight turns into fuel with efficiency up to 10% - higher than true leaves in nature. When electric current is passed through this semi-biological system, the electrodes turn water into liquid hydrogen as fuel, while creating environmentally friendly materials.

People often call plants an energy plant because it has been able to convert endless energy sources from sunlight through photosynthesis over millions of years. Therefore, people always want to master this process, which means creating an artificial photosynthesis system that gradually no longer depends on fossil fuels that have too many environmental problems. In that effort, researchers at Harvard University led by Professor Daniel Nocera developed a semi-biological artificial photosynthesis system.

In a recent report, Professor Nocera said: "We have achieved the dream performance of photosynthesis in nature. If you think about it clearly, photosynthesis is a great process. Just take the sunlight, the water and the air, then look at a tree. That's exactly what we did, but even we did better by turning all those things into turn. energy".

This artificial photosynthesis system is called "bionic 2.0 leaves".

The team called this artificial photosynthesis system "bionic leaves 2.0" because a few years ago, they developed an artificial leaf that could conduct photosynthesis, but after the process, this leaf It is no longer usable. In the new version, they used a bacterium called Ralstonia eutropha to take the final stage of the process of turning photosynthetic products into liquid fuel. However, they still use some metal catalysts such as nickel, molybdenum and zinc which kill bacteria.

In fact, there are many other research groups in the world that participate in artificial photosynthesis, but success is still moderate. Most problems face the same problem: although creating an artificial photosynthesis product is quite simple, but when it comes to converting the final hydrogen products into usable fuels, it cannot be guaranteed. ensure the closedness of the system.

And in the new system, Professor Nocera and his team continued to develop their bionic leaf systems to achieve higher performance. However, the last step of all bacteria must still be destroyed by using a mixture of cobalt and phosphorus. Then they put a low voltage into the leaf to boost the efficiency of the process. In nature, most plant species do not exceed 1% efficiency and even microalgae species only reach 5%. However, all-metal artificial leaves and bacteria have reached 10% efficiency - something never seen in nature.

Professor Nocera said: "This is an extremely important discovery because it demonstrates to us that photosynthesis can be improved. At the same time we want to bring this technology to the world. Indeed, the lack of energy is a problem for developing countries, with more than 1.3 billion people still alive without electricity while half the world still depends on the dirty fuel to cook. "This is not only the source of indoor air pollution, but it also causes 2 million deaths a year. And our leaf can be one of the ways to prevent these deaths."