Roland Piquepaille writes "In "Could laptops run on spinach?," Nature reports that researchers from the MIT have made solar cells powered by spinach proteins. These prototype solar cells which transform light into 'green' energy could be used one day to coat and power your laptop. There is still work to be done before becoming a commercial product. Right now, the prototype delivers current for only three weeks. And they are not very efficient, converting only 12% of the light they absorb into electricity. However, these spinach-powered solar cells are better for our environment than silicon solar cells. And according to Science News Online, in "Protein Power: Solar cell produces electricity from spinach and bacterial proteins," they also have the potential to be self-repairing. The research work has been published by Nano Letters (Vol. 4, No. 6, Pp. 1079 – 1083, June 2004). If you are a subscriber, you may access the paper, named "Integration of Photosynthetic Protein Molecular Complexes in Solid-State Electronic Devices," by going to this page. You'll find more details and references in this overview."
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.