Nano Scale Photosynthesis for Power Generation

Good news for those who think that machines are getting entirely too good at replacing humans - they've set their sights on the plants as well. Of course, this assumes your definition of "good" includes "misery loves company". A recent nanotechnological breakthrough means that machines could access the most awesome power source available - the sun.

Machines harnessing solar power is nothing new, but the macroscale solar panel approach remains woefully inefficient. You might notice that the average plant doesn't need a hundred square meters of Saharan desert to be economically viable. Huge advances in cellular biology and molecular machinery make the Gulliverian dream of extracting sunlight from cucumbers look shortsighted - why should we squeeze it out of them when we can work out how they do it?

Quantum mechanics specifies that every light photon only has a fixed amount of energy, which it can transfer to an electron when absorbed. The key to photosynthesis is combining several of these excited electrons into a single higher energy step. Scientists at the Hebei Normal University of Science and Technology in Qinhuangdao, China, have constructed just such a nano-manifold - a carbon nanotube which can accept multiple electrons as the core of a photosynthetic engine.

The full multiple-charge system, with the truly awesome name of "Dn-A supermolecule", consists of a large number of visible light absorbing phthalocyanine molecules covalently bonded to the single walled nanotube. So whatever else you do, don't play these guys at Scrabble.

Further elements of a full faux-photosynthetic system still have to be found, but this kind of progress demonstrates the truly incredible science we're now capable. There was a time when "Poems [were] made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree." Nowadays you want a tree? Okay, some scientists will work on this bit, some on that bit....

Posted by Luke McKinney.