６０秒科學(xué)

“60秒科學(xué)”是一個(gè)電臺(tái)節(jié)目，用一分鐘的時(shí)間為大家?guī)?lái)新鮮、有趣的科學(xué)新聞，聽眾只需花一分鐘便能輕松掌握科技發(fā)展新方向。對(duì)化學(xué)感興趣的同學(xué)注意咯，本期節(jié)目介紹了不少與化學(xué)相關(guān)的術(shù)語(yǔ)哦！假如你對(duì)化學(xué)不感冒，沒(méi)關(guān)系，記下來(lái)也可以在理科生面前炫耀一番。Got a minute?

Solar panels typically convert sunlight into electricity or heat. But 1)photosynthetic vegetation converts sunlight into chemical energy. Now M.I.T.’s Daniel Nocera wants to bring 2 photosynthesis to your home. Solar power only works， obviously， when the sun shines. Nocera’s idea is to take solar power and use it to for 3)electrolysis – to break apart water into hydrogen and oxygen – which then could be recombined when needed in a fuel cell.#8239;The problem is that current 4)electrolyzer technology takes a lot of energy in a harsh， 5)alkaline environment. That’s because， surprisingly enough， it’s hard to get the oxygen out of the water， not the hydrogen. Nocera designed a new 6)catalyst for that oxygen step that works at room temperature and pressure， in a glass of water. When a current runs through an 7)electrode， 8)phosphate and 9)cobalt in the water form a thin film on that electrode. And O2 bubbles right up. The work appears in the July 31st issue of the journal Science. This system could be paired with another electrode for the hydrogen side. Nocera believes that electrolyzers could be cheap and efficient within a few years.

太陽(yáng)能面板的特點(diǎn)是能將陽(yáng)光轉(zhuǎn)換為電能或熱能；而光合作用植物則能將太陽(yáng)能轉(zhuǎn)化為化學(xué)能。現(xiàn)在，麻省理工大學(xué)的丹尼爾·諾塞拉希望把光合作用帶進(jìn)你的家。顯然，太陽(yáng)能只有在陽(yáng)光普照時(shí)方能顯其威力。諾塞拉的創(chuàng)意是利用太陽(yáng)能進(jìn)行電解——把水分解為氫氣和氧氣——然后，當(dāng)需要時(shí)就能在燃料電池中將它們重新結(jié)合。問(wèn)題在于，現(xiàn)有的電解劑技術(shù)需要在嚴(yán)格的堿性環(huán)境下進(jìn)行，耗費(fèi)大量的能源。其中原因在于，人們很難將氧氣，而非氫氣從水中提取出來(lái)——這很出人意料吧。諾塞拉設(shè)計(jì)了一種新型催化劑，可以在室溫和室壓下對(duì)杯中的水進(jìn)行氧氣提取。當(dāng)電流通過(guò)一端電極時(shí)，水中的磷酸鹽和鈷會(huì)在電極上會(huì)形成一層薄膜，氧氣隨即產(chǎn)生。他的研究成果發(fā)表在7月31日的《科學(xué)》雜志上。這套系統(tǒng)可以與另一端生成氫氣的電極配套使用。諾塞拉認(rèn)為，未來(lái)幾年內(nèi)，電解劑的價(jià)格會(huì)變得便宜，而且利用效率會(huì)更高。