Artificial Photosynthesis for Capturing Solar Energy

Described by a simple chemical equation, photosynthesis is in reality an extremely complicated biochemical process carried out under ambient conditions without expensive precious metal catalysts. It has been a holy grail of energy research to perform photosynthesis artificially, that is, artificial photosynthesis, a feat that so far has defied the efforts of large numbers of scientists throughout the world.  

A much less likely possibility, but potentially very useful to provide feedstock for synthetic fuels manufacture if it could be accomplished, is production of CO from CO2 and H2O  

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