The race to invent the artificial leaf | 台北市立動物園資訊網

2018年2月21日—Sincetheearly1970s,scientistshavebeenonaquesttodevelopatechnologythatcouldcreateliquidfuelsoutofcarbondioxide,water,and ...

The way plants accomplish this water-splitting is instructive. The first lesson is that they separate the two halves of the water-splitting chemical reaction—that is, the “half-reactions” that produce hydrogen and oxygen. Evolution was no pyromaniac, and this design choice prevents hydrogen from spontaneously combusting in the presence of oxygen. Second, the plant contains catalysts, or molecules that speed up the half-reactions. Third, plants separate the two half-reactions with a membrane that not only keeps hydrogen and oxygen apart, but also allows charged ions to pass through it, which is important to avoid an imbalance of charge. 

Researchers developing solar fuel generators likewise need to put together a similar set of components. Two materials known as “photoelectrodes” are immersed in water and absorb light energy to perform each of the two half-reactions to split water. Two catalysts speed up each of those half-reactions. And a membrane stops the whole contraption—c...