Fri. Mar 29th, 2024
The experimental two-electrode setup showing the photoelectrochemical cell- which is illuminated with simulated solar light. | Credit: Katarzyna Sokó

The search to find new ways to harness solar power has just gotten one step closer to reality after researchers successfully split water into hydrogen and oxygen by altering the photosynthetic machinery in plants.

Photosynthesis, the process that plants use to convert sunlight into energy. produces oxygen as a by-product of photosynthesis, when the water absorbed by plants is ‘split’. It is one of the most vital reactions on the planet because it is the source of almost all of the oxygen in the world. Hydrogen, which is produced when the water is split could potentially be a green and unlimited source of renewable energy.

According to the research team, this new study could now be used to revolutionize the systems that are used for renewable energy production. The new paper, published recently in the journal Nature Energy, talks about how academics at the Reisner Laboratory in Cambridge have developed their platform to achieve unassisted solar-driven water-splitting. Their method was also successful in absorbing more solar light than natural photosynthesis.

Katarzyna Sokó, the first author of the study and PhD student at St John’s College, said: “Natural photosynthesis is not efficient because it has evolved merely to survive so it makes the bare minimum amount of energy needed – around 1-2 per cent of what it could potentially convert and store.”

A new study, led by academics from the St John’s College, University of Cambridge, used semi-artificial photosynthesis to find out new ways to produce and store solar energy. They utilized natural sunlight to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen by using a mixture of biological components as well relying on technology for some help .

Scientists have known about the process of artificial photosynthesis for decades but have not yet been able to successfully use it to create renewable energy because the process depends on the use of catalysts, which are often expensive and toxic. This means it can’t yet be used to scale up findings to an industrial level.

This Cambridge research is a part of the rising field of semi-artificial photosynthesis whose goal is to overcome the limitations of fully artificial photosynthesis by employing enzymes to create the desired reaction.

Sokó and the team of researchers not just improved on the amount of energy that is produced and stored, they also managed to reactivate a process in the algae that has been dormant for the past millennia.

She explained: “Hydrogenase is an enzyme present in algae that is capable of reducing protons into hydrogen. During evolution this process has been deactivated because it wasn’t necessary for survival but we successfully managed to bypass the inactivity to achieve the reaction we wanted – splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen.”

Sokó also hopes that the findings will facilitate the development of novel innovative model systems for solar energy conversion.

She added: “It’s exciting that we can selectively choose the processes we want, and achieve the reaction we want which is inaccessible in nature. This could be a great platform for developing solar technologies. The approach could be used to couple other reactions together to see what can be done, learn from these reactions and then build synthetic, more robust pieces of solar energy technology.”

By Purnima

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