Sustentabilidade
- Documentário Imperdível- Carbon Nation
Consulte todas as informações no sítio Carbon Nation- The Movie Carbon Nation is a 2010 documentary film by Peter Byck about technological- and community-based energy solutions to the growing worldwide carbon footprint. The film is narrated by Bill...
- Nuclear Nightmare- Artigo De Um Dos Gurus Do Consumidor
The unfolding multiple nuclear reactor catastrophe in Japan is prompting overdue attention to the 104 nuclear plants in the United States—many of them aging, many of them near earthquake faults, some on the west coast exposed to potential tsunamis....
- Energia Solar Sem Painéis Solares?
Por Bethy, Care 2, 10 de Novembro 2009 Despite a significant boom in the demand for solar power and the sophistication of photo-voltaic technology, many people still reluctant to outfit their homes with the hardware that's needed to take advantage...
- Investigador Em Astrobiologia E Endosimbiose Inauguram Uma Hipótese Muito Provável Acerca Da Evolução Da Vida Na Terra
Published By MattOn: 07 September 2009 8:26 AM CEST Source Humans might not be walking on Earth today if not for the ancient fusing of two microscopic, single-celled organisms called prokaryotes, NASA-funded research has found. By comparing...
- Dossier Eficiência Energética
ATENÇÃO © Copyleft - É permitida a partilha do dossiê exclusivamente para fins não comerciais e desde que o autor e o BioTerra sejam citados. Não esqueças de visitar regularmente este espaço para manteres-te actualizado Energias Alternativas...
Sustentabilidade
Scientists Reverse Engineer Plants to Make Hydrogen Fuel From Sunlight
 |
| Image Credit / Wikimedia |
In the search for clean, green sustainable energy sources to meet human needs for generations to come, perhaps no technology matches the ultimate potential of artificial photosynthesis. Bionic leaves that could produce energy-dense fuels from nothing more than sunlight, water and atmosphere-warming carbon dioxide, with no byproducts other than oxygen, represent an ideal alternative to fossil fuels but also pose numerous scientific challenges. A major step toward meeting at least one of these challenges has been achieved by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) working at the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP).
“We’ve developed a method by which molecular hydrogen-producing catalysts can be interfaced with a semiconductor that absorbs visible light,” says Gary Moore, a chemist with Berkeley Lab’s Physical Biosciences Division and principal investigator for JCAP. “Our experimental results indicate that the catalyst and the light-absorber are interfaced structurally as well as functionally.”
Moore is the corresponding author, along with Junko Yano and Ian Sharp, who also hold joint appointments with Berkeley Lab and JCAP, of a paper describing this research in theJournal of the American Chemical Society (JACS). The article is titled “Photofunctional Construct That Interfaces Molecular Cobalt-Based Catalysts for H2Production to a Visible-Light-Absorbing Semiconductor.” Co-authors are Alexandra Krawicz, Jinhui Yang and Eitan Anzenberg.
Earth receives more energy in one hour’s worth of sunlight than all of humanity uses in an entire year. Through the process of photosynthesis, green plants harness solar energy to split molecules of water into oxygen, hydrogen ions (protons) and free electrons. The oxygen is released as waste and the protons and electrons are used to convert carbon dioxide into the carbohydrate sugars that plants use for energy. Scientists aim to mimic the concept but improve upon the actual process.
JCAP, which has a northern branch in Berkeley and a southern branch on the campus of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), was established in 2010 by DOE as an Energy Innovation Hub. Operated as a partnership between Caltech and Berkeley Lab, JCAP is the largest research program in the United States dedicated to developing an artificial solar-fuel technology. While artificial photosynthesis can be used to generate electricity, fuels can be a more effective means of storing and transporting energy. The goal is an artificial photosynthesis system that’s at least 10 times more efficient than natural photosynthesis.
To this end, once photoanodes have used solar energy to split water molecules, JCAP scientists need high performance semiconductor photocathodes that can use solar energy to catalyze fuel production. In previous efforts to produce hydrogen fuel, catalysts have been immobilized on non-photoactive substrates. This approach requires the application of an external electrical potential to generate hydrogen. Moore and his colleagues have combined these steps into a single material.
Read more here
loading...
- Documentário Imperdível- Carbon Nation
Consulte todas as informações no sítio Carbon Nation- The Movie Carbon Nation is a 2010 documentary film by Peter Byck about technological- and community-based energy solutions to the growing worldwide carbon footprint. The film is narrated by Bill...
- Nuclear Nightmare- Artigo De Um Dos Gurus Do Consumidor
The unfolding multiple nuclear reactor catastrophe in Japan is prompting overdue attention to the 104 nuclear plants in the United States—many of them aging, many of them near earthquake faults, some on the west coast exposed to potential tsunamis....
- Energia Solar Sem Painéis Solares?
Por Bethy, Care 2, 10 de Novembro 2009 Despite a significant boom in the demand for solar power and the sophistication of photo-voltaic technology, many people still reluctant to outfit their homes with the hardware that's needed to take advantage...
- Investigador Em Astrobiologia E Endosimbiose Inauguram Uma Hipótese Muito Provável Acerca Da Evolução Da Vida Na Terra
Published By MattOn: 07 September 2009 8:26 AM CEST Source Humans might not be walking on Earth today if not for the ancient fusing of two microscopic, single-celled organisms called prokaryotes, NASA-funded research has found. By comparing...
- Dossier Eficiência Energética
ATENÇÃO © Copyleft - É permitida a partilha do dossiê exclusivamente para fins não comerciais e desde que o autor e o BioTerra sejam citados. Não esqueças de visitar regularmente este espaço para manteres-te actualizado Energias Alternativas...