Horizons - Renewables. Sir Harry was in London to give a lecture at the Royal Institution and conducted our interview in its basement, sitting on bar stools not four feet from Michael Faraday’s lab – where he invented the technology behind the electric motor.
He discovered the third form of carbon, known as C60. Carbon in some form has been known for millennia. The Neanderthals would have known of carbon because when you burn wood, you get charcoal and graphite which are forms of carbon. Diamonds are another form of carbon. But the third form was discovered in 1985, by Sir Harry Kroto and his colleagues Rick Smalley, Bob Curl and the students Jim Heath, Sean O’Brien and Yuan Liu. The discovery has created a whole new area of organic chemistry, and some interesting applications are coming forward now.
Kroto and his colleagues stumbled across the discovery almost by accident. Understanding the C60 molecule has been a huge boon to the solar power industry. Le MIT dévoile une feuille artificielle génératrice d'énergie > Solaire. Une feuille artificielle capable de convertir la lumière du soleil en énergie pouvant être stockée pour une utilisation ultérieure a été développée par des scientifiques américains.
On en sait donc un peu plus sur le catalyseur à bas coût promis par le Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) en collaboration avec l'industriel indien Tata. Composé d'une cellule solaire en silicium avec différents matériaux catalytiques attachés sur les 2 côtés, le dispositif n'a besoin d'aucun branchement ni d’aucun circuit de contrôle pour fonctionner. Le Pr Daniel Nocera explique qu'il suffit de placer cette feuille dans un conteneur rempli d'eau avant de l'exposer à la lumière pour qu'elle produise rapidement des bulles d'oxygène sur un côté et d'hydrogène sur l'autre. Par ailleurs, si la feuille est immergée dans un récipient avec une paroi séparant ses 2 faces, les bulles générées peuvent même être récupérées et stockées pour une utilisation ultérieure afin de produire de l'électricité. 'Artificial leaf' gains the ability to self-heal damage and produce energy from dirty water.
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 in New Orleans on April 8.
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. 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. "Surprisingly, some of the catalysts we've developed for use in the artificial leaf device actually heal themselves," Nocera said. Pr Daniel Nocera : « La feuille artificielle ouvre la voie à une énergie durable et accessible aux pauvres » (Par Véronique Anger-de Friberg.
Les Di@logues Stratégiques, octobre 2011) Sourire charmeur, regard clair et pénétrant, le Pr Nocera affiche cette décontraction typique des professeurs d’université qui enseignent sur les grands campus nord-américains. Si le nom de Daniel Nocera n’évoque rien pour vous, c’est que vous ne lisez jamais les pages scientifiques des journaux… ou alors que vous étiez dans un coma profond. Scientists find a way to bring down cost of producing 'artificial leaf'
The most efficient way to turn sunlight into energy has existed for around 400m years: photosynthesis.
Scientists have been attempting to replicate this in artificial leaves for some time and have now taken a step forward by replacing expensive materials with cheaper ones. This is significant, because while artificial leaves could be the fuel cells of the future, production costs remain a major issue. One of the biggest obstacles to artificial photosynthesis has been that scientists could only replicate it with a costly platinum catalyst. Now Danial Nocera at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) says his team has found a way to replace it with a cheap nickel-molybdenum-zinc compound. This puts him one step closer to his goal of finding an inexpensive, portable source of renewable energy for developing countries. In a real leaf, the hydrogen is then combined with CO2 from the atmosphere to make sugars, cell walls and other organic matter.
Chemistry: Daniel G. Nocera. BSA Lecture - Daniel Nocera. Dan Nocera: Personalized Energy. Sun Catalytix. Sun + Water = Fuel. “I’m going to show you something I haven’t showed anybody yet,” said Daniel Nocera, a professor of chemistry at MIT, speaking this May to an auditorium filled with scientists and U.S. government energy officials.
He asked the house manager to lower the lights. Then he started a video. “Can you see that?” He asked excitedly, pointing to the bubbles rising from a strip of material immersed in water. “Oxygen is pouring off of this electrode.” What Nocera was demonstrating was a reaction that generates oxygen from water much as green plants do during photosynthesis–an achievement that could have profound implications for the energy debate. Solar power has a unique potential to generate vast amounts of clean energy that doesn’t contribute to global warming. Storing energy from the sun by mimicking photosynthesis is something scientists have been trying to do since the early 1970s. Dan+Nocera 2009.pdf.