Engineers at the University of Maryland have found that porous types of wood from trees like poplar and pine can greatly increase the efficiency of water - to - steam conversion under sunlight.
With this approach, the Berkeley team achieved a solar energy conversion efficiency of up to 0.38 - percent for about 200 hours under simulated sunlight, which is about the same as that of a leaf.
«Under simulated sunlight, this integrated nanowire - based artificial photosynthesis system achieved a 0.12 - percent solar - to - fuel conversion efficiency.