Scientists at state-owned National Chemical Laboratory in Pune, a city 90 miles east of Mumbai, India, have developed an artificial leaf that generates hydrogen.
The device consists of semiconductors stacked in a manner to simulate the natural leaf system. When light strikes the semiconductors, electrons move in one direction, and the ultra-thin wireless device mimics plant leaves to produce energy using water and sunlight.
Chinnakonda S. Gopinath, a senior scientist at the laboratory said his team has been working for nearly a decade to split water molecules in order to generate hydrogen in this manner. “We have made an attempt to generate solar hydrogen. The method is simple and practical and there is a good possibility of scaling it up,” he said. The research, published in the journal Scientific Reports, says a palm-sized device can produce 6.3 quarts of hydrogen fuel an hour, reports NDTV. More work is needed on the project, added the scientist.
