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Using sunlight to make chemical products has long been a dream of chemical engineers. The problem is that the available sunlight generates too little energy to kick off reactions. However, nature is able to do this. Antenna molecules in leaves capture energy from sunlight and collect it in the reaction centers of the leaf where enough solar energy is present for the chemical reactions of photosynthesis.
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The researchers used relatively new materials known as luminescent solar concentrators (LSC's), which are able to capture sunlight in a similar way. Special light-sensitive molecules in these materials capture a large amount of the incoming light that they then convert into a specific color that is conducted to the edges via light conductivity. These LSCs are often used in combination with solar cells to boost the yield.
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The researchers, led by Dr. Timothy Noël, incorporated very thin channels in a silicon rubber LSC through which a liquid can be pumped. In this way, they were able to bring the incoming sunlight into contact with the molecules in the liquid with high enough intensity to generate chemical reactions.While the reaction they chose serves as an initial example, the results surpassed all their expectations, and not only in the lab. "Even an experiment on a cloudy day demonstrated that the chemical production was 40 percent higher than in a similar experiment without LSC material," says research leader Noël. "We still see plenty of possibilities for improvement. We now have a powerful tool at our disposal that enables the sustainable, sunlight-based production of valuable chemical products like drugs or crop protection agents."
A leaf-inspired luminescent solar concentrator for energy efficient continuous-flow photochemistry, Angewandte Chemie Int. Ed. 21 December 2016. DOI: 10.1002/anie.201611101
(Score: 3, Interesting) by anubi on Friday December 23 2016, @09:04AM
I get the very strong impression that once we become adept at coding DNA for molecular synthesis, we will find ourselves awash in abundance for any particular chemical configuration we can dream up, in much the same way we now find ourselves awash in every circuit configuration we dream up.
Today: Automation and photographic-style replication.
Tomorrow: Above plus biological style chemical synthesis?
With the synthesis systems resembling more a brewery than a refinery.
Who knew fifty years ago just how cheap a microprocessor could possibly be? I remember back that far ago, and the vacuum-tube TV's had just taken hold, and I was just seeing the first ads for Remington-Rand business machines, most based on mechanical cogs.
I believe we have just began to open the door on what's out there - and the wider we open it, the more we see.
I am overwhelmed with what we have done in the last 50 years I have been cognizant enough to see. More scientific advancement has been made in the narrow window of time I have been allowed to exist in than has happened in all of recorded history. And it shows no signs of stopping.
My biggest regret is my biological clock is going to tick out before I get to see the end of it.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 23 2016, @09:13AM
You're lucky because you'll miss seeing the social unrest this causes as today's billionaires become trillionaires. I can't wait to hear which mythical animal will be used to denote the trillion dollar startups. I can't wait to see the streets running red with blood as poor people murder each other for pocket change.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 23 2016, @09:23AM
Chimera/griffin.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday December 23 2016, @11:06AM
What I am hoping for is that money become somewhat like water in the sense that it does not matter how much water is in the ocean, rather it matters a lot to you how much water is in your glass.
It is my best hopes that technology be used for the betterment of all, to make sure everyone has their basic creature needs met and can live comfortably. By that, I mean they will have their physical needs met. I have a hard time with the notion that anyone should be denied food, shelter, or medical care due to financial constraint, however if you want status, you will have to work for that and be a useful citizen.
Most of us will work very hard - at whatever it is we seem ingrained from birth to do. Some of us can do things other than what we seem designed to do, while some of us are lousy at it. Look at our profession as an example. Not everyone has the hots to be a system engineer. There are many things I sure do not have the hots for, but this same thing appeals to others. I can really enjoy the musical "Cats", but I would not want to be a performer. Few things in Hollywood appeal to me - and the ones that do are support functions.
I would make a terrible replacement for Johnny Carson. He would make a terrible replacement for me. Neither of us would function productively in the other one's world.
This is a helluva lot easier for me to pontificate over than to implement. I have seen a lot of people go through great sacrifices to provide for the poor, only to have the poor themselves sabotage the operation. I do not mean *all* of the people who got a bad break are destructive, as all it takes is one group of bad apples to ruin a huge housing project.
For all of recorded history, we have had a conundrum of what to do with bad apples. I am not talking about people who like to produce that which no-one has a need for. We have a lot of that, but if that is their bag, the efficiencies of technology should cover it and let them enjoy their life doing what appeals to them. If they want to spend their life playing games, so be it. Its not my bag, but no-one gave me the onus of telling someone else how to run their life. My main concern is ones who seem dead set to destroy things and control/terrify others.
Remember the Zanti Misfits of "The Outer Limits"? The Zanti race had the same conundrum.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 23 2016, @12:45PM
My biggest regret is my biological clock is going to tick out before I get to see the end of it.
Don't regret. If there's end to it, whatever the end may be, you'd be wishing you didn't live to see it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 23 2016, @12:56PM
>Believe in incredible scientific advancement
>Doesn't believe in anti-aging