Artificial leaves split water into hydrogen fuel and oxygen

Nature contains some of the most cutting-edge and un-replicable technology known to mankind. Researchers are forever trying to match up to God’s own technological genius and are quite successful these days too. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Daniel Nocera, inspired by nature, has developed an artificial leaf. This leaf works somewhat like the green ones we see naturally sprouting out of trees everywhere and splits water into hydrogen fuel and oxygen. Using solar energy, the hydrogen is split up from the water and is then stored in the fuel cell to make electricity. Also, developing a device like this isn’t all that expensive, since it uses relatively cheap catalysts made from nickel and cobalt.

Very soon, we might just have tree-like power plants dotted with artificial leaves, generating electricity and hydrogen fuel to power up our plug-in hybrid cars and homes.
[Cnet]