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Published online 26 March 2008 | Nature 452, 400-402 (2008) | doi:10.1038/452400a
News Feature
Chemistry: The photon trap
Chemists have long wanted to recreate photosynthesis in the lab — and to improve on its efficiency at converting sunlight into fuel. Katharine Sanderson reports on their latest efforts.
Solar cells can take sunlight and produce a current, giving instant power. But as soon as the Sun goes down, the lights go dim.
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Is it such a good idea to produce hydrogen and oxygen mixed together? It might make the solar devices cheaper, but you will produce an explosive mixture which you do not dare to allow to exist in large volumes, so it must be separated immediately, at small scale. So you also need a very cheap, very small-scale, gas seperation plant. That's another technological uncertainty to add to the stack.