New insights from Caltech chemists could lead to better
catalysts for water splitting
Chemists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory believe they can now explain one
of the remaining mysteries of photosynthesis, the chemical process by which
plants convert sunlight into usable energy and generate the oxygen that we
breathe. The finding suggests a new way of approaching the design of catalysts
that drive the water-splitting reactions of artificial photosynthesis.
"If we want to make systems that can do artificial
photosynthesis, it's important that we understand how the system found in
nature functions," says Theodor Agapie, an assistant professor of
chemistry at Caltech and principal investigator on a paper in the journal
Nature Chemistry that describes the new results.