Using a nano-reactor, researchers at Indiana University have come one step closer to efficiently creating the modern marvel of cars and machinery powered by hydrogen, and a newly developed "highly efficient bio material" is the result of their exciting new discovery, according to Phys.
In a somewhat unconventional approach, researchers took hydrogen-producing enzymes and placed them inside virus shells. The biomaterial it created from that applied technique, P22-Hyd, is an important step toward more renewable fuel sources, as this alternative source is less expensive and more efficient than fossil fuels and conventional energy sources.
"Essentially, we've taken a virus's ability to self-assemble myriad genetic building blocks and incorporated a very fragile and sensitive enzyme with the remarkable property of taking in protons and spitting out hydrogen gas," said Trevor Douglas, professor of chemistry at IU's Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences. "The end result is a virus-like particle that behaves the same as a highly sophisticated material that catalyzes the production of hydrogen."
The scientists say that the new resource would not need to to be mined, but instead made using for fermentation technology at room temperature, and is also biodegradable, according to BioFuels Journal.
IU's findings have also been published by Nature.
