The same pursuit of greater efficiency motivates current research on artificial photosynthesis. Natural photosynthesis can already provide chemical fuel: In the US, for example, maize is grown and converted to ethanol. But it takes a plot of 9.6 hectares, or 24 acres, to produce enough ethanol to fill one gasoline truck. Maize must also be ground up and fermented to produce the ethanol. Artificial photosynthesis aims to bypass such efficiency-sapping steps by converting sunlight more directly into fuels and other useful chemicals.<\/p>\n
Photosynthesis requires splitting water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. However, the oxygen generated during this process is highly corrosive, attacking\u2014or \u201crusting\u201d\u2014the catalysts responsible for lowering the reaction\u2019s energy barrier. Natural photosynthesis mitigates this damage by continually resynthesizing the core protein complex of photosystem II whenever it degrades. Although finding a cheap, robust catalyst for artificial photosynthesis remains elusive, researchers are making steady progress. In fact, artificial systems have already surpassed natural plants in solar-to-fuel efficiency by a factor of 5. To close the remaining gaps, scientists are actively developing innovative hybrid nanomaterials to serve as next-generation catalysts.<\/p>\n
Since artificial photosynthesis remains far from established more than a century after Ciamician offered his vision, one might have grounds for despondency. But I\u2019m optimistic, in part because the path from basic research to practical technology can be long. Engineer and inventor George Cayley expounded the physics of flying machines in his treatise \u201cOn Aerial Navigation\u201d (1809\u20131810). The Wright brothers acknowledged their debt to Cayley, but nearly a century passed before they demonstrated a motorized aircraft capable of sustained flight in 1903.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The same pursuit of greater efficiency motivates current research on artificial photosynthesis. Natural photosynthesis can already provide chemical fuel: In the US, for example, maize is grown and converted to ethanol. But it takes a plot of 9.6 hectares, or 24 acres, to produce enough ethanol to fill one gasoline truck. Maize must also be [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,4,219,1633,17,1491],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chemistry","category-nanotechnology","category-physics","category-solar-power","category-sustainability","category-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}