User:Pmehta4/sandbox

Does the summary need expanding?

History
Ref #12 (shows media coverage?)

Agriculture
Ref # 10, 13

Bio-plastics
Ref#...

Atmosphere (could this be combined with agriculture? over all changing climate and green house effect)
Ref # 4, 14

Other Applications
is there more to add to this?

Photosynthesis
In natural photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms produce energy-rich organic molecules from water and carbon dioxide by using solar radiation. Therefore, the process of photosynthesis removes carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, from the air. Artificial photosynthesis, as performed by the Bionic Leaf, is approximately 10 times more efficient than natural photosynthesis. Using a catalyst, the Bionic Leaf can remove excess carbon dioxide in the air and convert that to useful alochol fuels, like isopropanol and isobutanol.

The efficiency of the Bionic Leaf's artificial photosynthesis is the result of bypassing obstacles in natural photosynthesis by virtue of its artificiality. In natural systems, there are numerous energy conversion bottlenecks that limit the overall efficiency of photosynthesis. As a result, most plants do not exceed 1% efficiency and even microalgae grown in bioreactors do not exceed 3%. Existing artificial photosynthetic solar-to-fuels cycles may exceed natural efficiencies but cannot complete the cycle via carbon fixation. When the catalysts of the Bionic Leaf are coupled with the bacterium Ralstonia eutropha, this results in a hybrid system capable of carbon dioxide fixation. This system can store more than half of its input energy as products of carbon dioxide fixation. Overall, the hybrid design allows for artificial photosynthesis with efficiencies rivaling that of natural photosynthesis.

Artificial Photosynthesis Systems
The Bionic Leaf is an artificial leaf interfaces a triple-junction Si wafer with amorphous silicon photovoltaic with hydrogen- and oxygen-evolving catalysts made from a ternary alloy (NiMoZn) and a cobalt–phosphate cluster (Co-OEC). The Co-OEC is able to operate in natural water at room temperature. Accordingly, the Bionic Leaf can be immersed in water and when held up to sunlight, it can effect direct solar energy conversion via water splitting.The Bionic Leaf, by virtue of the Co-OEC, also exhibits self-assembling and self-healing properties. The Co-OEC self-assembles upon oxidation of an earth metal ion from 2+ to 3+. It also self-heals upon application of a potential, wherein the cluster reforms due to equilibrium between aqueous cobalt and phosphate.

The Bionic Leaf can be used in artificial photosynthetic systems. One such system is a hybrid water-splitting-biosynthetic system that can operate at low driving voltages. The catalyst system of the Bionic Leaf is used in conjunction with bacterium Ralstonia eutropha. The bacterium is grown in contact with the catalysts and then consumes the produced H2 from the water-splitting reaction. After consumption, the bacterium synthesizes biomass and fuels or chemical products from low CO2 concentration in the presence of O2. The usage of the bacterium requires a biocompatible catalyst system that is not toxic to the bacterium and that lowers the overpotential for water splitting. Accordingly, this hybrid system uses a cobalt-phosphorus (Co-P) alloy cathode that is resistant to reactive oxygen species. This alloy drives the hydrogen evolution reaction while a cobalt-phosphate (CoPi) anode drives the oxygen evolution reaction.

Fuel Cell (remove from other and make section)
Ref #8, 9

Fuel cell image?