https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191021111826.htm
November 7th, 2019:
A gas called syngas that is made currently from fossil fuels is no capable of being made with an “artificial leaf”. This leaf only uses sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water to produce a liquid fuel alternative to petrol that is more sustainable. Typically syngas is made from hydrogen and carbon monoxide and this is used in fuels, plastics, fertilizers, and pharmaceuticals. Not many people have heard of or are aware that syngas exists, but it is used by us almost every day in some way.
The artificial leaf is built with two light absorbers combined with a catalyst made from cobalt, then once put in water one of the light absorbers produces oxygen and the other does the chemical reaction the reduces CO2 and H2O into syngas which is carbon monoxide and hydrogen. They also discovered that the light will still absorb even through a cloudy day, rain, or low sunlight levels. This means that you could use these artificial leaves anywhere in the world at any time of the day. Other devices similar to the artificial leaf have been created, but they typically only ever produced hydrogen.
These leaves were able to be made differently because they used state of the art light absorbers rather than those made from silicon and dye-sensitized materials. They also used cobalt rather than platinum or silver as their catalyst. Now that they have made this advancement they are trying t further it by trying to find ways to use the technology to produce another sustainable liquid that is an alternative to petrol. Electricity can only satisfy about twenty-five percent of the total global energy demand making the development of a synthetic petrol an incredibly vital operation. They are hoping to begin making other sustainable products such as ethanol that can also be used as a fuel source. The goal is for these to be produced in only one step from sunlight using the carbon dioxide reduction reaction and although their research already are incredible strides they are not quite where they hope to one day be yet.
The ability to produce synthetic fuel is incredibly important and crucial in helping maintain our ecosystem. Every day we are using nonrenewable resources and putting a divet into our environment. If we can produce something that is renewable in a sustainable way the impact that that will have in the future is huge. We will no longer be putting harmful pollutants out into the atmosphere and we would have a plentiful amount of resources left on the planet without the extra usage. Although this research is not quite, in the end, it is certainly heading in the right direction for the future.