• Question: Do you think it would be possible to mimic photosynthesis with artificially modified leaves ?

    Asked by anon-199468 to Sylvia, Sumit, Martin, Kate, Bryony, Aryanne on 7 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Kate McGonagle

      Kate McGonagle answered on 7 Mar 2019:

      Absolutely! It’s not in a leaf shape but we are pretty much already doing this with solar panels! Photosynthesis is just taking light energy from the sun and changing it into another form of energy – solar panels do this in soaking up the suns rays and then converting it into useful energy for us – electricity! So I’d say we have the technology. I hope this answers your question ok!

    • Photo: Sylvia Soldatou

      Sylvia Soldatou answered on 7 Mar 2019:

      Definitely! I was going to mention solar panels but I can see that Kate has already covered my thoughts!

    • Photo: Martin McCoustra

      Martin McCoustra answered on 7 Mar 2019:

      Kate and Sylvia are correct… solar panels allow us to capture sunlight and convert it directly to something electrical energy. There are also people around the world working on chemical systems that mimic photosynthesis and would allow us to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The former is potentially a very useful fuel.

    • Photo: Bryony Hockin

      Bryony Hockin answered on 7 Mar 2019:

      This is absolutely possible, and it’s a big area of research in chemistry and physics! Photosynthesis is basically converting one form of energy (sunlight) into another form of energy – which is similar to what I’m doing for my chemical reactions that are powered by sunlight. The way that photosynthesis works inside a leaf is to use a tiny molecule that contains molybdenum atoms, and this absorbs the light energy and reacts it with carbon dioxide and water to make carbohydrates, oxygen and water. Scientists have been working for many years to try and make a similar molecule containing molybdenum or another type of metal, that does the same job, but it’s quite difficult because plants have lots of special ways to make this molecule and we don’t. However, we are getting much closer to a solution as technology advances. This article gives some good information about it! https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/futuretense/mimicking-nature-to-produce-the-energy-of-the-future/5747004

    • Photo: Sumit Konar

      Sumit Konar answered on 8 Mar 2019:

      Artificial photosynthesis is a hot research topic. Many scientists are working on these. Bryony explained quite nicely. I never worked on photosynthesis. However, I am working with sunlight. I store them inside phase change material (they can store huge amount of heat) and use that heat at night to cook food.

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