{"id":5817,"date":"2012-05-19T08:28:25","date_gmt":"2012-05-19T15:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=5817"},"modified":"2012-05-19T08:28:25","modified_gmt":"2012-05-19T15:28:25","slug":"the-artificial-leaf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/the-artificial-leaf\/","title":{"rendered":"The Artificial Leaf"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daniel Nocera, Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy and professor of chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has caused a stir in the scientific community and attracted press attention including a recent feature article in the May 14 New Yorker<\/em>.<\/p>\n

MIT\u2019s own press release<\/a> makes it sound all too simple and immediately appealing. \u201cThe artificial leaf \u2014 a silicon solar cell with different catalytic materials bonded onto its two sides \u2014 needs no external wires or control circuits to operate. Simply placed in a container of water and exposed to sunlight, it quickly begins to generate streams of bubbles: oxygen bubbles from one side and hydrogen bubbles from the other. If placed in a container that has a barrier to separate the two sides, the two streams of bubbles can be collected and stored, and used later to deliver power: for example, by feeding them into a fuel cell that combines them once again into water while delivering an electric current.\u201d<\/p>\n