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By Buffalo Ben
#24133
To sum it up quickly, I will spare you the high school science class info. Basically my idea is to use synthtic chlorophyll, first synthesized by Robert Woodward in 1960 at Harvard University, to make a photo cell capable of producing useable amounts of energy. I'm not the smartest guy but I imagine there are two major problems.

1- Since chlorophyll is being made by plants regularly, I assume it degrades over time. There would need to be a way to either stop degradation completely (sounds very difficult if not impossible) or replenish it at a consistent rate.
2- Change how chlorophyll makes energy. Not sure how this would work exactly, but somehow alter chlorophyll to produce a type of energy capable of being stored in batteries.

I'm not sure if this idea is even possible, but if a "green" solar panel was made, it would be very easy to market. Thanks for reading this, any additional input would be appreciated.
By freerpg
#24158
I would assume the better idea would be to somehow harness the chlorophyll while it is still inside plants. this would make it self regenerate and also be good for making oxygen still.
secondly every type of energy can be harnessed, humans have this nice habit of assuming electricity is the only form however.
the best part of this is if you could layer the chlorophyll down so it has better efficiency than plants then technically you have a CO2 filter and the energy can also be converted.
problem is who is willing to test out types of plants to find best for making chlorophyll and then harness it into energy?
By coopers1305
#24768
Bio-solar cells could be the future for some devices by 2020 but with graphene solar cells coming soon, your device would be too high maintenance and costly to produce and would require living matter. But I'm not saying in some situations your idea wouldn't be useful.
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