A new sheet has appeared in the book on solar energy.

An MIT scientist announces that he has created “one of the holy grails of science”: an artificial leaf that can be applied in practice. This device, through a process similar to photosynthesis, creates electricity only from sunlight and water — a common opinion that is ten times more efficient than a real leaf of a plant.

Daniel Nocera acknowledged that the fruit of his team’s work is not the first artificial leaf in history: the honor of the pioneer belongs to John Turner from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. But Nocera said that while Turner’s development is expensive and unstable, the product of the Nocera team is inexpensive and it is proven that he is able to generate energy for 45 hours in a row.
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The distinction of this device is, according to Nosera, the new low-cost catalyst based on nickel and cobalt discovered by him. The catalyst helps release oxygen and hydrogen from water, and energy can be extracted from the resulting gases in the fuel cell.

Notsera says that one such “leaf” in combination with a gallon of water (≈4.55 l) is enough to provide energy to the household during the day. It should be noted that he was referring to homes in developing countries, so the amount of energy consumption there may be less than that of technically developed peoples.

It is said that the artificial leaf acts with 76 percent energy efficiency (in relation to the energy received to the absorbed sunlight). Compare with about ten percent efficiency of existing solar cells.

Nocera announced his achievement at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society - that is, in the same place where the technology was previously made public, which allows to control the flame or extinguish it with the help of emitted electricity .

_{(Photo by Len Rubenstein, Spectrum , Massachussets Institute of Technology)}