{"id":2047,"date":"2019-03-05T11:01:28","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T19:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greentechgazette.com\/?p=2047"},"modified":"2019-03-05T11:01:37","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T19:01:37","slug":"artificial-leaves-becoming-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greentechgazette.com\/index.php\/electricity\/artificial-leaves-becoming-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"Artificial Leaves Becoming Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In case you haven`t heard until now,\nresearchers tried to develop the so-called artificial leaves, a research\nproject that might soon become reality, but which for some time now had trouble\nwith actually placing it in a natural environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Artificial<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Artificial leaves imitate photosynthesis,\na natural process in which plants transform water and carbon dioxide from the\natmosphere into carbohydrates by making use of the energy provided by the sun.\nIn the beginning, the idea of artificial leaves seemed a bit far fetched due to\nthe fact that they worked only in a controlled environment such as a research\nlab, where researchers controlled the atmosphere and the artificial leaves were\nfed pure carbon dioxide from tanks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the latest news from the University of\nIllinois at Chicago include an innovative\ndesign<\/a> that will allow the artificial leaves to exist in a natural\nenvironment freely. The main challenge with the existing prototypes of\nartificial leaves is the fact that they were not designed to extract CO2 from\nthe air by themselves as they were fed from pressurized tanks. In reality,\nplants act like an absorbent of CO2 pulling it from the air on its own. Thus, a\npaper published in the journal ACS Sustainability Chemistry & Engineering\npresents a new design established in such manner that artificial leaves receive\nthe ability to pull independently the CO2 from the atmosphere. If you are\nwondering how this principle works here are a couple of details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First of all, an artificial leaf is\npositioned inside a water-filled capsule designed form a semi-permeable\nmembrane meant to permit the water to evaporate when warmed by the sun`s heat.\nMoreover, the same membrane allows the capsule to absorb carbon dioxide, which\nwill determine the leave to transform CO2 into carbon monoxide and oxygen. The\nresulted CO is potentially extractable from the membrane and could be used to\ncreate synthetic fuels such as methanol. Also, the oxygen gathered with the\nhelp of artificial leaves might be released back into the environment because\nof the newly employed design of the artificial leaf. In other words, the new\ndesigned proposed by the UIC researchers is adequate to function freely outside\njust like it happens in the cycle of life of a normal leaf. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artificial leaves becoming reality might\nend up being the most beneficial achievement for the environment in this\ncentury. The lab tests and studies prove the fact that the efficiency of the\nnew design for artificial leaves is astounding. Actually, by using this\ninnovative design for the leaves, the conversion of CO2 to energy and oxygen\nmight be 10 times faster than the process that happens naturally in nature.\nHence, artificial leaves might be able to diminish CO2 levels by 10 percent in\njust one day if they are placed over 400 square meters. We can definitely say\nthat this can reduce drastically the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and its\nnegative effects that surround us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, the project developed by UIC provides\nhope for our environment due to the fact that this particular design for\nartificial leaves has the potential to provide cleaner air and counteract the\ngreenhouse gases present in the atmosphere. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In case you haven`t heard until now, researchers tried to develop the so-called artificial leaves, a research project that might soon become reality, but which for some time now had trouble with actually placing it in a natural environment. Artificial leaves imitate photosynthesis, a natural process in which plants transform water and carbon dioxide from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-electricity"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greentechgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greentechgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greentechgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greentechgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greentechgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2047"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.greentechgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2050,"href":"https:\/\/www.greentechgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047\/revisions\/2050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greentechgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greentechgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greentechgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}