Lab Molecule Mimics Photosynthesis
University of Illinois researchers have built a molecule that mimics the way plants turn sunlight into electricity.
The molecule will not only help scientists understand how plants make food from light but could help develop computers that use light instead of electricity to process information, according to University of Illinois chemist Kenneth Suslick.
The molecule is designed to imitate photosynthesis, the complex process plants and some bacteria use to turn sunlight into energy for life. Instead of the green-colored chlorophyll that plants use, the University of Illinois model uses red-tinted molecules called porphyrins, which humans and other animals use to carry oxygen.
When light hits those two molecules, they produce an electron, which is then caught by another molecule attached to the porphyrins, Suslick says. In other words, the molecule is a miniature way to turn light into electricity.
The experimental computers that use light to process information, called optoelectronic computers, need some way to turn that light back into electricity, Suslick says.
Suslick, fellow chemistry professor Gregory Girolami and doctoral student Christopher Heim announced the new molecule in the June 6 issue of the European chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie.
