Science to the Rescue: MIT Creates Synthetic Leaf Power Station?
Dr. Daniel Nocera and his team at MIT have created an artificial leaf that might be able to power a home. Here’s a bit from the story I found at Mail Online with help from Slatest:
About the shape of a poker card but thinner, the device is fashioned from silicon, electronics and catalysts, substances that accelerate chemical reactions that otherwise would not occur, or would run slowly.
Placed in a single gallon of water in a bright sunlight, the device could produce enough electricity to supply a house in a developing country with electricity for a day, Nocera said.
It does so by splitting water into its two components, hydrogen and oxygen.
The hydrogen and oxygen gases would be stored in a fuel cell, which uses those two materials to produce electricity, located either on top of the house or beside it.