‘Artificial leaf’ gains the ability to self-heal damage and produce energy from dirty water

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://portal.acs.org/portal/PublicWebSite/pressroom/newsreleases/CNBP_032564

[font face=Serif]EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE | April 8, 2013
[font size=5]‘Artificial leaf’ gains the ability to self-heal damage and produce energy from dirty water[/font]

[font size=3]NEW ORLEANS, April 8, 2013 — Another innovative feature has been added to the world’s first practical “artificial leaf,” making the device even more suitable for providing people in developing countries and remote areas with electricity, scientists reported here today. It gives the leaf the ability to self-heal damage that occurs during production of energy.

Daniel G. Nocera, Ph.D., described the advance during the “Kavli Foundation Innovations in Chemistry Lecture” at the 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society. About 14,000 scientists and others are expected for the meeting, which continues through Thursday with almost 12,000 reports on advances in science.

Nocera, leader of the research team, explained that the “leaf” mimics the ability of real leaves to produce energy from sunlight and water. The device, however, actually is a simple catalyst-coated wafer of silicon, rather than a complicated reproduction of the photosynthesis mechanism in real leaves. Dropped into a jar of water and exposed to sunlight, catalysts in the device break water down into its components, hydrogen and oxygen. Those gases bubble up and can be collected and used as fuel to produce electricity in fuel cells.

“Surprisingly, some of the catalysts we’ve developed for use in the artificial leaf device actually heal themselves,” Nocera said. “They are a kind of ‘living catalyst.’ This is an important innovation that eases one of the concerns about initial use of the leaf in developing countries and other remote areas.”

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[Demeter]

1. That is so cool, and a great promise

and why the hell can't we use it here, in the filthy US of A?

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. At this time, it’s not terribly efficient, but it is terribly simple

If you have a fairly modest need for energy, this is a pretty simple way to get it.

In the USofA, we have much higher energy budgets, but we can deal with larger, more complex systems. So (for example) you could have a rooftop solar array, and use these same catalysts to produce hydrogen with the electricity. At this time, this would be more efficient than the “artificial leaf.”
http://vimeo.com/8194089

[Demeter]

3. I'm looking at it as a small community with ponds and creek

Cracking the free but dirty water for fuel cells, recombining the H and O to produce clean water for pumped storage/irrigation/better ponds, whatever.

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. You might be disappointed by the volume of water produced

It takes a lot of energy to split water.
http://vimeo.com/51772014