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Artificial Photosynthesis

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Introduction: Solar Fuels and Artificial Photosynthesis

This article deals with research aimed at the development of solar fuels. The term “solar fuel” is becoming established since the beginning of the new millennium. Parts of this research are often named “artificial photosynthesis for fuel production,” “solar-hydrogen research,” “the artificial leaf,” or something analogous. The introduction of solar fuels on a very large scale is motivated by concerns about global warming, energy security for everyone and decreased availability of oil and gas. It is also driven by recent advances in a range of scientific fields that make scientists convinced that solar fuels are possible to produce in an efficient and cheap way in a not too distant future.

A solar fuel is always made using solar energy as the only energy source. The idea is to harvest the energy that comes when the sun shines, convert it and store it as a fuel, and then use this when and for whatever we want. The raw material for...

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Correspondence to Stenbjörn Styring .

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Styring, S., Thapper, A., Lomoth, R. (2014). Artificial Photosynthesis. In: Kreysa, G., Ota, Ki., Savinell, R.F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Applied Electrochemistry. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6996-5_246

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