User:Sickesair/sandbox

Atmosphere
Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, traps heat in the atmosphere, the bionic leaf can potentially be used to reduce the carbon dioxide within the atmosphere. While the bionic leaf is running mimics photosynthesis by converting the carbon dioxide in air into fuels. The bionic leaf can eliminate 180 grams of carbon dioxide out of 230,000 liters of air for each kilowatt hour of energy it consumes. While removing large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere not possible yet on a large scale, this technology is useful in areas where carbon dioxide is produced such as power plants. It can also be implemented within urban areas, providing clean air to the area. The technology may also be used on a smaller scale, helping communities produce, harness, and consume the require energy they need.

Fuel Cell
The Bionic Leaf can make fuel from water, air and sunlight. By using solar electricity provided by photovoltaic cells, the device is able to split water. After the water is split into oxygen and hydrogen, microbes feed on the resulting hydrogen gas and convert the carbon dioxide to produce fuel alcohols isopropanol and isobutanol, such as while consuming the carbon dioxide.

Originally the catalyst used to produce the hydrogen was a nickel-molybdenum-zinc alloy but this poisoned the microbes by destroying the bacteria's DNA. The catalyst was then replaced with a cobalt-phosphorous alloy. With this alloy, when an electric current is ran though the solution, it splits cells and assemble itself, meaning there are enough excess electrons to induce the catalyst formation. This in return leave no excess metal and does not form oxygen radicals, leaving the microbes and DNA unharmed. The new catalyst improved the efficiency of the alcohols produced bionic leaf by 10%, and can run up to 16 days at a time. This is 9% higher when compared to natural photosynthesis.

History
In 2009 at MIT, Daniel Nocera's lab first developed the "artificial leaf", a device made from silicon and an anode electrocatalyst for the oxidation of water, capable of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. In 2012, Nocera came to Harvard and The Silver Lab of Harvard Medical School joined Nocera’s team. Together the teams expand the existing technology to create the Bionic Leaf. It merged the concept of the artificial leaf with genetically engineered bacteria that feed on the hydrogen and convert CO2 in the air into alcohol fuels or chemicals.

The first version of the teams Bionic Leaf was created in 2015 but the catalyst used was harmful to the bacteria. In 2016, a new catalyst was designed to solve this issue, named the "Bionic Leaf 2.0". Other versions of artificial leaves have been developed by the California Institute of Technology and the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, the University of Waterloo, and the University of Cambridge.