SUNLIGHT INTO FUEL

Science 4 September 2009:Vol. 325. no. 5945, pp. 1200 - 1201DOI: 10.1126/science.325_1200b


American Chemical Society Fall Meeting, 16-20 August, Washington, D.C.:
New Trick for Splitting Water With SunlightRobert F. Service
For solar power to become our foremost energy source, researchers will need to find a way to store and move it—preferably in the form of chemical fuel. Plants do that through photosynthesis, with the help of a manganese-based catalyst. At the American Chemical Society fall meeting, a team reported incorporating a mimic of this natural catalyst into a solar cell to create what amounts to artificial photosynthesis: a device that turns sunlight into fuel.