Since 2011, scientists from around the world have been trying to create artificial leaves that can clean the air and even produce fuel. All this time, the prototypes they created could only work in laboratory conditions, and their functioning on the street was out of the question. To the surprise of many, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago suddenly announced that their version of artificial leaves could convert carbon dioxide to oxygen even outside the laboratory.
According to study author Minesh Singh, previous versions of the leaves were able to generate oxygen, electricity and liquid fuels only from carbon dioxide stored in pressurized tanks. They simply did not have the strength to suck in carbon dioxide from more dilute sources like street air.
It turned out that solving this problem was very simple. The researchers simply took and placed the current version of the artificial leaf in a water-filled ammonium resin capsule. The idea is that when exposed to the sun, moisture begins to slowly evaporate through tiny pores. Its place is instantly taken by carbon dioxide, which is converted into carbon monoxide through photosynthesis. It is he who eventually becomes the raw material for creating fuel or synthesizing oxygen and releasing it outside to purify the air.
According to the researchers, artificial leaves purify the air 10 times better than living plants. If you make a small tree from them with 360 leaves 170 cm long and 20 cm wide, it can absorb 10% of carbon dioxide in a radius of 100 meters. It is believed that creating many of these leaves will not be difficult - the researchers' concept is made from the most available materials.
Ramis Ganiev
