Clean energy solutions to the standards of the people are indispensable for the future. Although sunlight is the most common source of energy at our disposal, we still have to learn to save, transport and store solar energy efficiently. According to the University of Toronto chemistry professor Greg Scholes, the answers can be found in complex systems at work in nature.
"The production of solar fuel often begins with the light energy is absorbed by an assembly of molecules," said Scholes, DJ LeRoy professor emeritus at U of T. "Energy is stored as volatile vibrating electrons, then transferred to a suitable reactor. It's the same in biological systems. photosynthesis, for example, called up the antenna complexes of chlorophyll captures sunlight and direct energy to specific proteins, reaction centers, which help to make oxygen and sugar. It's like putting these proteins into a power of solar energy. "
In an article in Nature Chemistry, to be published Sept. 23, examines Scholes and colleagues at several other universities, the latest research in various natural antenna complexes. Using lessons learned from these natural phenomena, they provide a framework for how to design the light collection system that will direct the flow of energy in the sophisticated means and longer distances, resulting in a microscopic "power" to regulate solar energy conversion.
A central problem is that the sun's energy is captured by colored molecules known dyes or pigments, but it is saved for only a billionth of a second. This gives little time to conduct the energy from the pigments in the molecular machinery that produces fuel or electricity. How can we collect the sunlight and use its energy before it disappears?
"This is why natural photosynthesis is so inspiring," said Scholes. "Over 10 million billion photons of light striking a leaf every second. Of these almost all the photons trapped by red pigments Chlorophyll, which the growth of forage plants. "Learning the function of these natural light-harvesting systems promoted a vision proposed by Scholes and his coauthors, develop and demonstrate the molecular mechanisms" circuit "which is 10 times less the thinnest wire in the computer processors. These energy circuits to control, regulate, manage and improve first solar energy was captured by the man of pigments, which prevents the loss of precious energy that before it is exercised.
Last year, Scholes has led a team that showed that the seaweed, a normally functioning biological uses quantum mechanics to optimize photosynthesis, a process crucial for its survival. These and other glimpses of the natural world, promises to revolutionize our ability to harness the power of the sun.
"The lessons of the nature of the collection of sunlight" was written by Scholes, Graham Fleming, University of California, Berkeley, Alexandra Olaya Castro, University College London, UK and Rienk Van Grondel VU University Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Nature Offers Key Lessons On Solar Energy Harvesting, Chemists Say
