A new “artificial leaf” system that uses solar energy to split water can safely and efficiently create hydrogen fuel.
“This new system shatters all of the combined safety, performance, and stability records for artificial leaf technology by factors of 5 to 10 or more,” says Nate Lewis, a chemistry professor at Caltech and scientific director of the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP).
The design, described in the journal Energy and Environmental Science, consists of three main components: two electrodes—one photoanode and one photocathode—and a membrane.
The photoanode uses sunlight to oxidize water molecules, generating protons and electrons as well as oxygen gas. The photocathode recombines the protons and electrons to form hydrogen gas.
