Artificial leaves can produce electricity.

Artificial leaves, which are water-gel based solar devices, can act like a solar cells in order to produce electricity,  a result shown by a study led by North Carolina State Researcher, co-autored by Researchers from the AFR laboratory and Chung-Ang University in Korea. They prove a concept for making solar cells by resembling the nature. This new technology can be less expensive and much more enviromental friendly compared with the silicon based solar cells.

Researchers used the plant chlorophyll coupled with carbon coated electrodes materials like carbon nanotubes or graphite in one of their experiments. This light sensitive molecules get exited by the sun rays and produce electricity just like plant molecules get excited to synthesize sugars in order to grow.

Now the research team, are working to mimic the self-regenerating mechanisms found in plants. Although this new technology looks promising, there is a long way to go before this can become a practical technology. Dr Orlin Velev (lead author of the paper) says "However, we believe that the concept of biologically inspired soft devices for generating electricity may in the future provide an alternative for the present day solid-state technologies"