A next step in renewable Bionic Leaf fuel production

A few years ago, Harvard chemist Daniel Nocera, along with collaborators from Harvard Medical School, created a system that uses sunlight to split water molecules and combine them with carbon dioxide from air to produce renewable fuel. The system, known as the Bionic Leaf, surpassed the efficiency of photosynthesis, the system by which plants and some other organisms convert energy from sunlight into chemical energy in the form of sugar. In a new paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers address how to use seawater to power the Bionic Leaf. Nocera, the Patterson Rockwood Professor of Energy, spoke with the Gazette to answer questions about his research and the latest advancement of the Bionic Leaf project.