{"id":2238,"date":"2006-09-08T01:08:00","date_gmt":"2006-09-08T01:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sustainablog.greenoptions.com\/2006\/09\/08\/aussie-researchers-experimenting-with-synthetic-chlorophyll\/"},"modified":"2006-09-08T01:08:00","modified_gmt":"2006-09-08T01:08:00","slug":"aussie-researchers-experimenting-with-synthetic-chlorophyll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/aussie-researchers-experimenting-with-synthetic-chlorophyll\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussie Researchers Experimenting with Synthetic Chlorophyll"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
While human beings have made some definite<\/a> strides<\/a> in harnessing the sun’s power, a team of researchers in Australia is looking at how plants do it (since they’ve, you know, done it for a lot longer). According to ABC Australia’s News in Science<\/a>, a molecular electronics group at the University of Sydney is attempting to create synthetic chlorophyll, with the aim of creating solar panels that reach much higher efficiencies than those currently available:<\/p>\n

“Nature has evolved this very efficient process, over millions of years, for harvesting light and then converting it into energy,” says [Professor Max] Crossley.<\/p>\n

“We’re trying to mimic aspects of natural photosynthesis.”<\/p>\n

Dense arrays of chlorophyll molecules in leaves are responsible for converting light energy to electrical energy and then to chemical energy.<\/p>\n

Critical to this function of chlorophyll is the pigment porphyrin, which is attached to a central magnesium ion.<\/p>\n

Crossley and team have made a synthetic form of chlorophyll that performs the first part of that process, converting light energy to electrical energy.<\/p>\n

As in nature, when a large number of these synthetic molecules are arranged in a dense array they act in concert to efficiently collect photons of light.<\/p>\n

“There has to be a lot of them because if there was only one it would be a very inefficient process,” says Crossley.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The science on this is rather dense, but ultimately involves trying to create nanomaterials that mimic the action of leaves and chlorophyll. If it works, this will be a major achievement: leaves convert solar energy at a 30-40% efficiency rate, compared to 12% for the average silicon-based solar cell. The scientists also believe that a breakthough in this area will push the development of thin-film solar cells even further: “In the long term what we’re trying to do is have something we can simply paint on a roof, like a thin layer,” said Crossley. I’d imagine this would be an economic winner, also — while I have no guess how much such a product would cost commercially, the possible tripling of efficiency would have to make solar power much more competitive in the market. Very cool!<\/p>\n

Via Hugg<\/a><\/p>\n

Categories: solar<\/a>, energy<\/a>, innovation<\/a>, nanotechnology<\/a>, biomimicry<\/a>, plants<\/a>, chlorophyll<\/a>, australia<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While human beings have made some definite strides in harnessing the sun’s power, a team of researchers in Australia is looking at how plants do it (since they’ve, you know, [ … ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":17172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nAussie Researchers Experimenting with Synthetic Chlorophyll • Sustainablog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/aussie-researchers-experimenting-with-synthetic-chlorophyll\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Aussie Researchers Experimenting with Synthetic Chlorophyll • Sustainablog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" 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