Light Harvesting: Artificial Inorganic Leafs for Efficient Photochemical Hydrogen Production Inspired by Natural Photosynthesis (Adv. Mater. 9/2010)

A natural leaf is a synergy of elaborated structures and functional components, producing a highly complex machinery for photosynthesis in which light harvesting, photoinduced charge separation, and catalysis modules combine to capture solar energy and split water into oxygen and “hydrogen” efficiently. On p. 951, Tongxiang Fan, Di Zhang, and co-workers report on the development of artificial inorganic leaves with enhanced light-harvesting and photocatalytic water splitting abilities, which stem from reproduction of natural leaves' complex structures and self-doping with nitrogen during synthesis.