Purple power: Synthetic `purple membranes´ transform sunlight to hydrogen fuel
(World News Science)

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy`s Argonne National Laboratory have found a new way to produce solar fuels by developing completely synthetic bionano machinery to harvest light without the need for a living cell. The researchers` technique, reported in ACS Nano as a `synthetic purple membrane,` is an important step toward producing clean fuels that can help solve global energy challenges. `This synthetic system gives us the ability to reconfigure an ancient biological process for a new and useful application for energy.` - Elena Rozhkova, a scientist at Argonne`s Center for Nanoscale Materials and author of the study. These synthetic purple membranes contain tiny discs of organic...