Chemical engineers at Eindhoven University of Technology have develop a leaf-inspired prototype reactor that could capture the energy from sunlight and use it to produce drugs sustainably and cheaply anywhere.
Their prototype, described in a paper published in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition, draws inspiration from the ability of leaves to collect, store and use energy from sunlight to make its own food, a process commonly known as photosynthesis.
For their prototype reactor, the researchers combines a luminescent solar concentrators (LSC’s) and microchannels. LSCs are relatively new material that have a special light-sensitive molecules. These molecules captures large amount of incoming light and converts it into specific color. The color is…
