Bionic leaf - Characteristics
Q. Recently Bionic leaf is in news. Which of the following is/are true about it?
1) It can create food like in leaves, artificially.
2) It uses sunlight to generate liquid fuel
3) Its efficiency is higher than that found in plants.- Published on 07 Jun 16a. 1, 2
b. 2, 3
c. 1, 3
d. All of the above
ANSWER: 2, 3
- A team of scientists from Harvard University has created a unique ‘bionic leaf ‘, that uses solar energy to split water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen, and hydrogen-eating bacteria to produce liquid fuels from CO2.
- Dubbed ‘bionic leaf 2.0,’ the new system can convert solar energy to biomass with 10 percent efficiency - a number far higher than the one per cent seen in the fastest growing plants.
- The team designed a new cobalt-phosphorous alloy catalyst.
- The new catalyst also came with another advantage. Its chemical design allows it to "self-heal" -meaning it wouldn't leech material into solution.
- It can be used to generate usable fuels like hydrogen.
