STAFF REPORT ISB: Scientists at the Helmholtz Center for Materials and Energy (HZB) in Germany have precisely characterized a manganese catalysts electronic states. The catalyst is capable of converting light to chemical energy.Through their work, Prof. Emad Aziz, head of the HZB Institute “Methods for Material Development,” Prof. Leone Spiccia from Monash University, and their teams have taken an important leap forward in understanding photosynthesis – the method green plants use to obtain energy – in artificial systems.
Findings of the team have been published in the journal ChemSUSChem as well as the Royal Society of Chemistrys Journal of Materials Chemistry A.
If sunlight could effortlessly be converted to chemical energy, our energy troubles would be a thing of the past.