Profile: Research Profile - Carl Wamser

Learning from leaves

If you lived inside a leaf, you'd have all the free energy you couldwant. Sound a little crazy? Scientists have already developedprototypes.

Themethod is called artificial photosynthesis, and Carl Wamser, professorof chemistry, believes we'll see commercially viable applicationswithin the decade.

A leaf's green chlorophyll membraneabsorbs sunlight and uses that solar energy to push electrons thatexist in the membrane into the plant cell in a form the plant can usefor energy.

Wamser (pictured at left) and about 50 othersresearchers worldwide are developing synthetic membranes using asimilar process to convert sunlight into electricity—on a scale thatone day could be used in homes and skyscrapers.

To date,scientists have created artificial membranes that work; however, theseprototypes are only about five percent efficient (compared to siliconcells, which can be 10 to 15 percent efficient). But Wamser isoptimistic that current research—including his—will one day result inmembranes so efficient, durable, and thin they could be embedded in,say, roof shingles or siding to power a building.

"Scientistslike to point out," says Wamser, "that in one hour the amount ofsunlight that falls on the Earth is more than all the energy usedworldwide in an entire year."

Wamser, a longtime solarpower enthusiast, is also working with more traditional solar panels.Using a $144,000 U.S. Department of Energy grant, he'll be testing nineconfigurations of solar panels. The panels are set to begin operationon top of Cramer Hall in summer 2008.