Artificial Leaves that Make Hydrogen?

Now if that isn’t something that makes your eye brows go up in wonder, we are not sure what would!

The Chinese are an amazing bunch and here’s their latest contribution to the world… An artificial leaf that can harness light to split water and generate hydrogen!

Who is responsible?

Scientists at the State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China.

So why is this impressive?

Plant leaves have evolved over millions of years to catch the energy in the sun’s rays to produce food and the central step in this process involves splitting water molecules and creating hydrogen ions. So the scientists mentioned above have mimicked the machinery plants use to do this and have created a miniature hydrogen factory, in the laboratory!

How?

By mimicking the photosynthesis process and the structure of green leaves. Naturally occurring Magnesium atoms in plant leaves that play a critical role in photosynthesis have been replaced by Titanium in the artificial leaf. This Titanium deposits in the artificial leaf as crystallized Titanium dioxide and this can catalyze the splitting of water molecules.