Scientists stealing plant's energy

Plants have a very efficient mechanism for converting solar energy to chemical energy and using it for production of sugars and carbohydrates required by them. Scientists have been trying to build a similar mechanism for along time now but couldn't achieve such efficiency. So finally, they have build a mechanism to steal plant's energy produced during photosynthesis.

Scientists working in the field of nano-sciences at University of Georgia, have developed a mechanism to that allows them to capture the energy plants create during photosynthesis, and turn it into electricity that can power the human world. The study was published in Energy and Environmental Science journal.

In the process of photosynthesis, plants use sunlight to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, releasing electrons in this process. These electrons are used by plants to produce carbohydrates from carbon-di-oxide gas and energy. Calkins, Umasankar and their team of scientists at University of Georgia, have tried to capture these electrons and utilize them for energy production. These electrons can be captured and transferred through a pipe in the form of electricity. 

They have used spinach thylakoids immbolizied on the carbon nanotubes, where thylakoids capture electrons and carbon nanotubes help to transfer them. They were able to obtain a maximum current density of 68 μA cm⁻² and a steady state current density of 38 μA cm⁻², which are two orders of magnitude larger than previously reported for similar systems. 

This is just a starting point for developing highly efficient mechanism for energy production. The carbon based nanostructured electrode has the potential to serve as an excellent immobilization support for photosynthetic electrochemistry based on the molecular tethering approach as demonstrated in this work. Also, further work is required  to stabilize the photosynthesis process so that electrons can be captured from them without harming the plant growth.