Artificial Leaf Could Provide Cheap Energy

Posted by Soulskill on Monday March 28, 2011 @12:05PM from the make-like-a-tree-and-catalyze-the-electrolysis-of-water dept.

sciencehabit was one of several readers to tip news of a sunlight-harvesting artificial leaf, writing: "Nearly all the energy we use on this planet starts out as sunlight that plants use to knit chemical bonds. Now, for the first time, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created a potentially cheap, practical artificial leaf that does much the same thing—providing a vast source of energy that's easy to tap. The new device is a silicon wafer about the shape and size of a playing card coated on either side with two different catalysts. The silicon absorbs sunlight and passes that energy to the catalysts to split water into molecules of hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen is a fuel that can be either burned or used in a fuel cell to create electricity, reforming water in either case. This means that in theory, anyone with access to water can use it to create a cheap, clean, and available source of fuel."

1 of 326 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Re:So it's a solar cell.... by c6gunner · 2011-03-28 13:26 · Score: 1, Troll

Quite true. A 100 mile by 100 mile solar power plant would provide all the electricity that the United States needs [americanen...ndence.com].
Yes, but how many mexicans would you need to keep the panels clean? 10,000? 100,000? 100,000,000?
Of course, the number of nuclear power plants needed to produce the same amount of electricity could fit in a 10 mile by 10 mile area. And they wouldn't need hordes of window-washers to keep operating at full capacity. Nor would they shut down at night time.

It would have the added benefit of never running out, as fossil fuels and fissile nuclear fuels do.
Bullshit. Everything runs out eventually.