Nanoparticles help scientists harvest light with solar fuels

The humble algae, hated by boaters and pool owners, may someday help provide us with the raw machinery to power our appliances.

A group of scientists at the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, led by chemist Lisa Utschig, has linked platinum nanoparticles with algae proteins, commandeering photosynthesis to produce hydrogen instead. The system produces hydrogen at a rate five times greater than the previous record-setting method.

"If you are considering the question 'How do we get energy from the sun,' you always come back to photosynthesis," Utschig said. "Photosynthesis does it best. It's been engineered over millions of years."

Utschig and Tiede are part of Argonne's Photosynthesis Group, which has worked for fifty years to understand photosynthesis - one of the most mysterious and wonderful chemical processes in the world.

Photosynthesis built a green Earth out of the bare, meteor-blistered planet which had sat empty for a billion years; it tipped the composition of the atmosphere towards oxygen, allowing all kinds of life to blossom, including us.

The chemistry group is part of a larger effort to develop efficient ways to produce what are termed solar fuels. Most people think of solar panels when they think of solar energy, but the energy that solar panels generate has to be used right away - they directly create electricity, which can't be stored easily.