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Allows you to keep the cuprous oxide semiconductor properties in the water, making it suitable for the direct production of hydrogen a cheap and readily available material
A discovery made by researchers at the EPFL will improve the efficiency of photo-electrochemical cells used to produce hydrogen from water. The photo-electrochemical cells convert sunlight into energy used to produce chemical reactions, just like plants do in photosynthesis. The process uses light-sensitive semiconductor materials, such as cuprous oxide, to produce the current needed to power the reactions.
The problem for the use of this oxide in the direct production of hydrogen from water is the fact that its exposure to light in the water makes it unstable, losing the material to its semiconducting properties.
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Researchers at the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) have manipulated the process of photosynthesis of plants in a way that may allow the energy produced in the process to be utilized for subsequent use as electricity.
The achievement is a first step of the process that could one day provide power, green in more ways than one.
The research team led by Gadi Schuster and Noam Adir, considered a key protein in the process of electrons moving along the production line of photosynthesis. In its natural state, this protein extract electrons from water and moves through the plant cell membrane.
Altering an amino acid of the hundreds found in the protein, the researchers changed the direction of electron emission, thus allowing the energy produced in the process could take for later use. This modified protein “export” electrons at a frequency high enough to produce a useful amount of energy. The change from positive to negative does not affect the protein function and the development of the plant, thanks to which it is possible to obtain large amounts of protein at minimal cost.
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Absorption of CO2 in the atmosphere, release of oxygen from the water drunk and the final production of nutrients , all with light energy : photosynthesis is at work in plants.
The absorption of light is made possible thanks to pigments , the most famous is certainly there but also chlorophyll and carotenoids , which unlike the first , absorb much green but not yellow or orange, from where their color and their name taken from the carrot that contains many . These pigments have two main roles : a role of light harvesting has been said , they transfer energy to chlorophyll , but also a photoprotective role they evacuate excess light energy , thereby preserving the process of photosynthesis.
What then is the mechanism at work that drives the plant to protect itself when the sunshine watching ? This is the question that three researchers , two of CRAG , Center for Research in Agrogenomique [ 1] Barcelona and the University of Texas , responded .
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The satellite Envisat surprised a bench-shaped plankton growing, twisting and Sea of North off the coast of Scandinavia. Norway (left) and Sweden (right), part of the Scandinavian peninsula, are visible at the top of the image, while Denmark appears in the bottom right.
The plankton, which form the most abundant life in the oceans, is composed mainly of microscopic marine plants that drift on the surface of the sea or near it. The plankton was nicknamed “the grass of the sea” because it is the staple food on which all other forms of marine life.
As the plankton contain chlorophyll pigments for photosynthesis, these simple organisms also play a role similar to that of terrestrial green plants in the process of photosynthesis.
Plankton is capable of transforming inorganic compounds such as water, nitrogen and carbon in material organic complex. This ability to digest these compounds, it is estimated that the plankton contributes as much as terrestrial vegetation to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
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Methane is a very stable molecule, its degradation without oxygen or sulphate seemed impossible, at least we thought until in 2006 a team of researchers discovered a bacteria anaerobic, ie they can live without oxygen Methylomirabilis oxyfera able to oxidize methane without using oxygen. To achieve this, the organism uses some particular nitrites in freshwater sediments of agricultural areas. Today, the same research team, the fruit of an international collaboration involving the CEA, CNRS and Universite d’Evry-Val d’Essonne, just to show that the same bacterium, by an enzymatic process entirely new product in itself makes the oxygen from the nitrite and uses it to oxidize methane. The work that led to the discovery of this new method for producing oxygen that could be prior to the onset of photosynthesis, thus making possible the existence of an aerobic metabolism in an atmosphere devoid of oxygen comes from be published in the journal Nature dated March 25.
Methylomirabilis Oxyfera is developing very slowly in an anaerobic environment and within a complex microbial community, the understanding of this new method for producing oxygen has not been easy. Therefore, researchers Genoscope Directorate of Life Sciences CEA did they use a holistic approach by sequencing the entire DNA of this community. And it is from these sequence data that they have mapped the genome of this bacterium. With the results obtained, the researchers were then able to demonstrate that genes typically involved in the reduction of nitrite were absent from this genome, which led them to suggest that there is another way of reduction of nitrite in this bacterium and , moreover, that it is capable of producing her own oxygen and use it to oxidize methane.
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Environmentally friendly and energy-saving method of producing hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles could be inspired by nature. Specifically, the leaves of plants. Driver needed chemical reactions, just like during photosynthesis may be solar radiation.
Plants are able to produce by photosynthesis from water and carbon dioxide simple sugars, which can be obtained by other biochemical reactions of a wide range of organic compounds. Waste product of this process is oxygen. The efficiency of utilization of solar radiation can not compete yet leaves no human technology. Why are they then something nepriucit?
For the production of hydrogen can be used titanium dioxide, which acts as photocatalysts – accelerates a chemical reaction activated by light. Involved, inter alia, the decomposition of water molecules from which hydrogen can be obtained. Scientists from universities in Shanghai Jiaotong at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Association presented the way the efficiency of the process greatly increased.
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The University of Zaragoza has participated in an expedition to Antarctica with a study that will accurately quantify the chemical pollution of water. The investigation will define the real pollution, not only through global levels, as heretofore, but indicating the level of toxicity, depending on whether the metals are dissolved in the liquid or are associated with colloids or plants. Researchers compararam Antarctic phytoplankton in warm seas altered by humans.
The Research Institute of Environmental Science of Aragon, University of Zaragoza, directed by Juan Ramon Castillo, has developed an appropriate analytical methodology to determine the presence of these biocatalysts in phytoplankton and their distribution and their role in photosynthesis.
Specifically, the research group Analytical Spectroscopy and Sensors, which in turn coordinates Castillo, compare the results of analysis of samples of algae collected in the Antarctic to the warm waters from freshwater even more disturbed by the humans.
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On January 13, 2010, the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) said the opening of a new key laboratory specializes in Photo-biology. Created at the Institute of Botany (IOB), the laboratory will serve primarily to study the mechanisms of bio transformation of solar energy, opportunities in agriculture and energy.
The research topics will focus on:
1) The study of the structure and function of photosynthetic pigments in the membrane and its applications.
2) The study of the structure and functions of the photosynthetic membrane lipid
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