New "Artificial Leaf": Next Step In a New Energy Source

One of the most exciting new sources of energy that scientists are developing is based on nature's own process of photosynthesis. All plants store energy by using the sun's rays to change certain molecules into other forms. This is (very loosely speaking) like splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen: when oxygen and hydrogen are put back together, they release energy. The problem is, most methods of splitting water are expensive and slow.

But Scientists all over the place have been working on catalysts that can split water using sunlight for a while now, but until recently, they've all been using expensive elements like platinum. Now, MIT claims that they've created a paper-thing solar cell that uses a cheap catalyst to split water. The genius of this setup is:

• It is cheap and efficient
• The catalyst is stable and lasts far longer than earlier attempts
• It can be used in any type of water, and would produce clean drinking water once the hydrogen and oxygen are put back together

In other words, this kind of energy source could be used anywhere in the world, by anybody. Any time I've read about it, the topic of using it in third-world scenarios always comes up, but it can also be scaled up for wider use.

The team haven't released their findings in a peer-reviewed journal yet, so the full story is still unknown. And there's still one major problem: no-one has yet built a safe, cheap hydrogen fuel cell to make use of all that hydrogen. But it's still an exciting step forwards!

If you want to get more pumped about what this technology could do for the world, check out this video featuring Dan Nocera, one of the lead researchers on this project at MIT.