Saturday 16 July 2011

ARTIFICAL LEAF TO GENERATE ALTENATIVE ENERGY



Dr. Daniel Nocera, MIT Professor  and his team has created an artificial leaf that carries out the process of photosynthesis. The artificial leaf  is an advanced solar cell device, the size of a playing card. This is left in water and  it uses sunlight to split the water into its two core components, oxygen and hydrogen, which are stored in a fuel cell to be used for producing electricity. The artificial leaf can operate for  at least 45 hours without a drop in activity and is made of  inexpensive materials  such as silicon, electronics and chemical catalysts. The artificial leaf is ten times more efficient at carrying out photosynthesis compared a natural leaf.

Dr. Daniel Nocera claims that the chip could produce enough electricity to power a house  with just a single gallon of water, for an entire day. This invention is called ‘biomimicry’ -  the science of combining biology and design to perform activities the way nature would! The artificial leaf would be an inexpensive source of electricity for homes of the poor in developing countries. "Our goal is to make each home its own power station", said Dr. Nocera.

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