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Monday, May 20, 2013

Traveling the electron transport chain

Because of new developments, photosynthesis has been in the news lately.  Science News reports "Artificial Forest for Solar Water-Splitting: First Fully Integrated Artificial Photosynthesis Nanosystem."  Quoting from the article --
While "artificial leaf" is the popular term for such a system, the key to this success was an "artificial forest."

"Similar to the chloroplasts in green plants that carry out photosynthesis, our artificial photosynthetic system is composed of two semiconductor light absorbers, an interfacial layer for charge transport, and spatially separated co-catalysts," says Peidong Yang, a chemist with Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division, who led this research. "To facilitate solar water- splitting in our system, we synthesized tree-like nanowire heterostructures, consisting of silicon trunks and titanium oxide branches. Visually, arrays of these nanostructures very much resemble an artificial forest."
image: solar fuels concept drawing from JCAP

MIT News reports in "Secret of efficient photosynthesis is decoded" that "Purple bacteria are among Earth’s oldest organisms, and among its most efficient in turning sunlight into usable chemical energy."

Shown below is simple diagram of photosynthesis found Equinox Overseas Investments.

image:  simple photosynthesis diagram from Equinox

For current news on photosynthesis, try e! Science News' list, continually "updated by artificial intelligence."  At the top of the list (warning: link is flaky) is an article from Science Centric: "Unique close-up of the dynamics of photosynthesis."

Below is a more detailed explanation of the photosynthetic process (be prepared for alphabet soup and scientific jargon), posted to YouTube by ndsuvirtualcell.


For current research on artificial photosynthesis, keep an eye on JCAP (Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis), a research program dedicated to the development of an artificial solar-fuel generation technology.  Nanowires promise to transform solar panel technology, according to this article at R&D Magazine.  Note that "an array of nanowires may attain 33% efficiency."

Considering that "The Sun produces enough energy in one hour to power all human activity on Earth for a full year" (JCAP), artificial photosynthesis promises to be a rewarding venture.

-- Marge

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