ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY: Bringing artificial leaves out of the lab

摘要

Artificial leaves that mimic photosynthesis and convert CO2 to fuel could be brought out of the lab for the first time.Artificial leaves only work in the lab because they use pressurised CO2 from tanks.So,University of Illinois researchers Aditya Prajapati and Meenesh Singh placed an artificial leaf inside a transparent capsule made of a semi-permeable membrane resin,filled with water.The membrane allows the water to evaporate out when warmed by sunlight while pulling in CO2.Singh from the UIC College of Engineering told Laboratory News:”Our artificial leaf is bio-inspired which has components similar to natural leaves such as catalyst-coated light absorbers that functions like photosystems of natural leaves,and anion-exchange membrane that is similar to stomata of natural leaves.