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Article: Chlorophyll in spinach powers photosynthetic solar battery.(Solar power)
- Article from:
- Chemistry and Industry
- Article date:
- October 4, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Society of Chemical Industry. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have harnessed the photosynthetic power of plants in a solid-state photosynthetic solar battery for the first time (Nanoletters 2004, 4, 1079-1083). Plants convert sunshine to energy using chlorophyll, a photosynthetic compound that gives them their green colour. The process is efficient but the plants need water and salt to survive, making them unusable in regular, solid-state electronics--until now.
The key to the new system is the creation of pellets containing the proteins and co-factors from chlorophyll that convert photon energy into free electrons.
Spinach was ground up and centrifuged to ...