Artificial Leaves Can Generate Electricity

A group of researchers from the United States said that they managed to make a "leaf" which consists of silicon and use sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Once separated, then these substances can be deposited into the fuel cell to generate electricity.

"If you put the silicone leaves it in a glass of water and bring it out and leave them in the sun, you'll start seeing bubbles of hydrogen and oxygen," said Daniel Nocera, a professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), chairman team of researchers who discovered the technology.

Artificial leaf is expected to address the problems facing the solar power plant in how store the energy produced by the sun so that it can be used when the weather is cloudy. Not with a refill of the batteries, but store energy as hydrogen and oxygen gas to then be combined in a fuel cell to generate electricity.

The next step, said Nocera, is to optimize the technology to produce hydrogen and oxygen for fuel cells to supply energy for your car or home. "I do not need to have cables milling. No need drove it into anything," he said. "That is what leaves it. They take sunlight and produce energy wirelessly. That's what happened here," said Nocera.