WASHINGTON: A new method has been discovered in reducing carbon emissions and converting it into useful materials. Research team from the US Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the Universiy of California (UC) Berkeley have found out a new technique that modifies carbon emissions into highly advantegous chemical products such as liquid fuel, pharmeceutical products and biodegradable plastic materials. Artificial photosynthesis makes use of carbon dioxide and water to produce acetate that is transformable to many important substances.
“In natural photosynthesis, leaves harvest solar energy and carbon dioxide is reduced and combined with water for the synthesis of molecular products that form biomass. In our system, nanowires harvest solar energy and deliver electrons to bacteria, where carbon dioxide is reduced and combined with water for the synthesis of a variety of targeted, value-added chemical products,” said Chris Chang of Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley, an expert in catalysts for carbon-neutral energy conversions.
“Our artificial forest is similar to the chloroplasts in green plants. When sunlight is absorbed, photo-excited electron−hole pairs are generated in the silicon and titanium oxide nanowires, which absorb different regions of the solar spectrum. The photo-generated electrons in the silicon will be passed onto bacteria for the CO2 reduction while the photo-generated holes in the titanium oxide split water molecules to make oxygen,” said Yang.
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