Scientists developed an artificial leaf to make medicine, taking inspiration from photosynthesis. Believe it or not, these artificial leaves have the capability to create medicine. All they need is sunlight. (via Bart Van Overbeeke)
There’s no question about the importance of medicine, but the sad fact is not everyone has access to it. Whether it’s lack of medical support or funds, medicine is not necessarily widely available around the world. But what if we suddenly had the ability to create medicine anywhere with the only requirement being sunshine? A team of scientists from Eindhoven University of Technology have made this dream become a reality. They took the idea of photosynthesis from Mother Nature and applied it to an artificial leaf device that use luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) to catch and store large amounts of light. The LSCs do this with their special light-sensitive molecules that can capture incoming light.
The device captures a good amount of the incoming sunlight with the special molecules and then coverts it into a specific color, which is then conducted to the edges via light conductivity. The artificial leaf also uses thin, microchannels, which have a similar function to veins. Liquids are pumped through the veins housed in a silicon rubber LSC allowing the molecules to come in contact with the sunlight the LSC has gathered. Sunlight alone doesn’t create enough energy to start reactions, but with the use of the LSCs the energy is intense enough to get those reactions.
Researchers are still testing the device, but the results so far are promising. They report that the chemical production from the device was 40 percent higher than similar experiments without LSC. The results remained stable even when there was heavy cloud coverage, so hopefully, mild weather conditions shouldn’t be an issue. Lead researcher Timothy Noel calls the device a mini-factory that only requires sunlight. He believes using this reactor will allow you to make medicine from anywhere from the jungle to even different planets, like Mars.
There’s still a lot of work to be done with the device the researchers note, but the future seems bright with this powerful tool in their hands. Just imagine producing medicine from anywhere and cheaply. All thanks to chemical reactions from LSC, which would be less toxic than the chemical reactions we currently use in traditional medicine. If this artificial leaf works the way researchers’ purpose, maybe medicine wouldn’t be so far from reach for people all over. You can read more of the team’s report in the Angewandte Chemie journal.
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