Green Energy (Part 2): Just Leaf the Fuel Cells to the Flora

Yesterday at To Infinity And…In Theory we talked about Fuel Cells and their background story starting with the first man to dream them up (William Grove) and concluding with the man who sent them into space (Francis Bacon). If you missed yesterday’s entry don’t fret, you can catch up here. [Green Energy (Part 1): Four Score AndTwenty Years Ago Fuel Cells Were Born! …(ish)] Today we’re going to see how these pioneers who laid the very important groundwork for Hydrogen Fuel Cell technology are pushing the energy crisis out of the way.

After NASA witnessed the hidden potential of these tiny molecular powered batteries firsthand they were ecstatic to say the least. They jumped onboard the Green Tech train and launched some 200 projects using Fuel Cell research as the backbone. Sometimes it only takes one huge influence to boost innovation to invention. Since the 1960’s, laboratories all over the world have delved into these powerful technological marvels of science.

We’re going to talk just a little bit more about their history today (not much, we covered the history pretty well I think yesterday) starting from the bulky models used on Apollo to the silicon sheets half a nanometer thick today. We’ll also talk about how they work, how they charge them up, and a new harvesting technique that could make Fuel Cells the most cost effective energy option on the market to date.

Think you know Green Technology in and out? Well then, let’s put that knowledge to the test shall we.

It’s Not Easy Being Green

When Grove conceptualized the Fuel Cell in the late 1800s I doubt he had space travel in mind. Heck, at that point they barely had a grasp on it. But Francis Bacon’s Hydrox Fuel Cell blew everyone away in the middle of the 20^th century. Yet the technology didn’t catch on, Ford still had a monopoly on propulsion, no one was interested in a product that had not been tested. After all, who in their right mind would want to be a guinea pig?

But NASA saw the promise. (Oh NASA, how I love you. For real.) It launched 200 projects into Fuel Cell technology and sure enough in the late 60s, Bacon’s Fuel Cells, with some slight modifications, made their journey into space a reality. They were also used again in a little project you might have heard of. Apollo, perhaps? Ring any bells? I really hope so because the Apollo program accomplished one of the greatest feats of all time.

Apollo 11 put a man on the moon.

Yep, Apollo 11 was far more important than just the prequel to Apollo 13, (no Tom Hanks here, sorry folks!) it was the mission where Neil Armstrong planted the American flag on the lunar surface. (We really have to stop claiming things that technically don’t belong to us…) But how did this happen? Well there were millions of parts in motion, but an important aspect of the mission was a Fuel Cell.

More importantly, not only was the Fuel Cell capable of splitting Hydrogen and Oxygen in order to produce energy, it could reassemble the molecules to turn them back into water. I’m sure it was filtered, but this is what the Astronauts drank. Hydro Fuel Cell H2O.

So how does it do this? It’s pretty cool actually; I’ll break it down for you.

The Bacon Cell is essentially an Alkaline Fuel Cell, and boy are they efficient. What’s happening is called a Redox reaction. (Red = Reduction, Ox = Oxidation). This can be as simple as oxidation of carbon to yield Carbon Dioxide, or as complex as producing glucose inside the human body, both are forms of a Redox reaction.

Well this concept is happening inside the battery. (A stack of fuel cells). At the anode hydrogen is being oxidized. When this happens it enters its liquid state, water. It then re-enters the module and returns to the cathode where the water is then turned back to hydroxide ions. The cycle keeps repeating itself, thus creating a regenerative supply of energy. The best part of all you ask?

Electricity and heat are the byproducts. That means powering the ship, according to a molecule, is just their waste.

The electrodes are separated by an aqueous alkaline solution. It’s the catalyst for the reaction to produce water and electricity. There’s only one slight problem. If Carbon Dioxide gets into the Fuel Cell it can “poison” the entire system, compromising everyone onboard the ship. (Seen the new Sandra Bullock flick? Being compromised in space is scary stuff!) Because of this both pure oxygen is used and a scrubber is incorporated into the system so as to filter it after each pass. So why don’t we use this for the general public?

The poisoning effect we just talked about is one of the reasons. It can happen fairly easy, and if it does, it’s pretty much irreversible. Considering we expel carbon dioxide as waste from our lungs, we could potentially destroy the vehicle ourselves by just driving it. Ford would love it, but we’d be in the poor house. Pretty much, technology just wasn’t there yet for small, affordable, consumer models, after all, it was only the late 60’s, we didn’t even have Internet yet! (Or Google. What did we do before Google? I think it was like a library or like, something about Dewey…oh well.)

However that reality may not be so far away. In 1999 a transport boat that ran on AFC’s was put into commission. It was called the HYDRA. (Run Captain America!) Before they took it out of the water and decommissioned him he transported some 2,000 passengers and even won a few energy related competitions.

But now Fuel Cells, once again, have come out of the world of obscurity and are back in the spotlight. Yet now they aren’t just being looked at as a replacement technology because we might run out of gas. Now we need them because soon, we might kill the Earth if we keep it up, and running out of a planet is far more treacherous of a prospect then no more driving. At least to me, I don’t know how you feel about it.

So what are we doing to stop this bleak future from occurring? Researchers in Tennessee came up with a clever answer to that question. Let’s see what Popeye has to say about Science.

Eat Your Spinach, Sailor…

If you’re old enough to remember the man pictured above, then your childhood was most likely AWESOME! If not, I’m sorry…anyway. Do you know how Spinach makes the food it consumes? A little process called photosynthesis. Did you also know this produces chemical energy? Huh? Did ya!?

Well this chemical energy can be converted into another kind of energy, something of a kinetic variety. Mechanical energy to be exact, and at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, that’s exactly what scientists are looking to exploit.

It takes light 8 minutes to reach the leaves of the Spinach. In five trillionths of a second the plant is already converting that sunlight into energy. Where Alkaline Fuel Cells were efficient and their obvious replacement Silicon Fuel Cells was more so, the environment’s natural processes have billions of years ahead of us. While we’ve been trying to manufacture artificial versions of Mother Nature, Mother Nature has already created the perfect practice.

So how are they achieving this goal? Turns out you can infuse the leaves of spinach with platinum. Because chloroplast is already a conductor for the plant to make energy with, this platinum just enhances its natural abilities and suits it toward technology we can use. The best part of it all, it’s 100% green.

The platinum turns the spinach leaf into an electrical switch. Biometric scientists are looking toward this technology for use in the blind. It has the potential to be very effective for biotic eyes. Speed-of-light computers are also a potential for the same reason. The human retina registers light faster than anything we can currently build, but by using these platinum chloroplasts, it could provide the building block to make something that not only matches the speed at which the eye operates, but surpasses it as well.

Time will tell but I’m looking forward to this technology in the future. Want to know more about Spinach powered super computers? You can by clicking here.

So by now you’re probably asking yourself, “yeah that’s cool and all, but I thought this was about Fuel Cells.” Well…not that part in particular. But I just wanted you to understand the potential for plant based biotechnology, before I blew your mind. While they had one bionic eye on supercomputers when they were working with University of South Carolina to extract Spinach proteins, they had their other one trained on the future of sustainable energy.

Standing Fern on Green Energy

That complex tangle of green, yellow, and blue is actually fairly important to all of this. It’s called the Light Harvesting Complex, or LHC-II for short. It’s the protein that they pulled from the spinach responsible for the function of photosynthesis. The guys over at Clean Technica break it down the best:

Oak Ridge writer Bill Cabage describes the latest breakthrough as a biohybrid photoconversion system. The researchers were able to confirm that a particular light-harvesting protein derived from plain old supermarket spinach can be induced to assemble itself into a membrane, by putting it into a liquid solution containing synthetic polymers. The protein, called LHC-II (LHC stands for Light Harvesting Complex) interacts with the polymers to form a membrane, which in turn produces hydrogen. In other words the membrane acts as a kind of photovoltaic cell, but instead of generating electricity it generates-hydrogen.
Read more at Clean Technica

In short, clean, renewable, affordable, sustainable, and literally green as you can get energy. There is a catch though. This technology doesn’t come cheap. Platinum is incredibly expensive. But researchers at MIT may have an idea that could reduce that cost significantly.

“Leafing” It All Behind…

As I mentioned before, Platinum is super expensive stuff. Not to mention, it’s fairly uncommon as far as rare Earth elements go. Another problem with Fuel Cells was the ability to keep them self-contained and contaminate free. But that could theoretically be a thing of the past thanks the brilliant mind of Daniel Nocera. Toiling hard night and day in the bowels of MIT, he finally seemed to figure it all out.

He would grow trees that produced hydrogen instead of oxygen.

…

HA! Nope, but I had you going for a second there didn’t I? It might as well be that though considering the principle they operate on is exactly the same as a leaf.

No not the leaf, the thing on the leaf. And no, you don’t have to attach them to a leaf, they are self-contained and operational. No planting required. But the million dollar question is how do they work? It’s not a mystery, it’s just science.

When sunlight hits a leaf it begins to cause a chain reaction. The sunlight begins to convert chemicals within the leaf into free oxygen by breaking down water. That oxygen is then released back into the environment for us to breathe. This is basically how photosynthesis works though there are much more complex things happening, (HowStuffWorks.com will tell you all about it here.) But we should quickly clarify what we mean by “leaf”.

The artificial leaf may be a bit misleading; it’s actually called a Photoelectrocell. Photoelectrocells differ from Photovoltaic cells significantly. Voltaic cells generate voltage when light hits them, while Photoelectric cells generate electricity from light. Voltage determines the electric potential, meaning how much power there is going to be. (i.e 9V batter, 12V battery etc.) A Photoelectric cell converts it into electricity, like a solar panel, and its power is determinative of its capacity and how much energy is available. But anyhow, back to fake leaves.

By using the same basic principles of photosynthesis with only a few slight adjustments, Nocera created the little wafer pictured above to basically do just that. Except instead of producing free oxygen for us to breathe, it breaks down water into oxygen and hydrogen for us to use to power our cell phones, cars, laptops, and robotics. By placing it in a tankard of water (refilled daily) the Photoelectrocell can make all sorts of things happen.

And it’s fairly cheap.

Instead of running mostly on Platinum it uses very little of the precious element. It’s mainly comprised of Cobalt, Zinc, and other fairly inexpensive metals and minerals. The wafer is then coated in a sheet of silicon that is thick enough to better protect the metals from oxidation (rusting is a form of oxidation. Oxidation is what destroys the electrodes.) Yet thin enough to allow the reaction to take place effectively.

But in order for everything to work proper, clean water is the essential ingredient. Testing is currently underway to make one that can survive in slightly more contaminated environments but after a while it still clogs the chip and the process stops working. They also discovered another unique property of this, to a degree the silicon area of the chip will repair itself. Nocera and his team noticed this when they roughed up the surface in an attempt to discourage grime and biofilm from building up on the artificial leaf.

Unfortunately keeping contaminants out continues to be a problem. While a closed cell is possible, water is still needed for the initial catalyst. Clean water at that to avoid degrading the material faster than necessary. Not all parts of the world that could certainly benefit from this technology have ready access to clean water. Plus, in order to keep it cost effective, an open cell where water can continually be refilled is preferable as it wouldn’t have many special requirements that quickly add up to total wallet devastation over time. 

A Green Future (Literally)

As the price of solar technology continues to drop and the mass production of artificial leaves becomes a priority, Dr. Nocera claims we may see this technology in every household worldwide in as little as five years. But if there is one thing I know about the world it’s that the people with money don’t like to let go of it, and major power companies are not going to like this tech one bit.

Because of its potential to be extremely cheap to produce, it would be reasonably priced for the Consumer. If two panels cost $60, and two full size panels (we’re speculating here only) could potentially run a two story house, then pretty much anyone in the world could afford them, even in the most impoverished areas. Let’s face it; it would put Consumer’s Energy out of business and all other power countries worldwide.

Right now it’s estimated that the current cells cost around $6.50 USD to produce. While fossil fuels are sitting pretty at the height of popularity still, Fuel Cells are back. And just like when Grove powered the telegraph and truly became the definition of Avante Garde, they’re in line to change the way we live in this ever developing world.

-       Ryan Sanders

Thanks for reading! And as always if you want to know more about solar powered spinach, wireless Fuel Cells, or the artificial leaf and its creator follow any of the links below. Share it around, after all, everyone loves science!  Happy learning!

-       Nature article on the artificial leaf

-       Clean Technica’s article on the artificial leaf (equally as well written as the above)

-       BBC Horizon video with Daniel Nocera

-       Daniel Nocera’s TEDx talk about sustainability

-       Designboom article on turning grass clippings into solar panels

*Correction: In yesterday’s article I said the technology to turn Spinach into electrical switches was patented in the 1990’s. That was a typo. I meant 1980’s; the actual patent was issued in 1985. Sorry about that folks but mistakes do happen. - Ryan Sanders

Green Energy (Part 1): Four Score and Twenty Years Ago Fuel Cells Were Born ...(ish)

We’ve talked about green energy here at TI&IT before (Fossilizing Fossil Fuels ForFundamental Molecules) but coming up we’re going to get a bit more literal with it. In the 1990’s, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratories (ORNL) in Tennessee, United States put a patent on electricity producing Spinach. Well Spinach proteins to be exact, but I mean, if a salad can provide the energy for our bodies to function, why can’t it power our cars too?

And that is exactly the strange line of thinking that brought us gel-like artificial chlorophyll in North Carolina and the hydrogen fuel producing solar powered trees at MIT. But how does this craziness actually work?

Well unlike electrolysis, which uses metal connectors and electrical currents to separate Hydrogen from Oxygen molecules in water, this method uses solar power through a form photosynthesis. So from start to finish, it’s a clean, green, energy producing machine. And do you want to know the best part about this? It’s cheap.

That’s right. For so long Hydrogen fuel cells seemed to elude us due to the fact that the production methods byproducts were harmful to us, not energy efficient, and above all, were not cost effective for the small quantities of power it yielded. In fact, depending on which process scientists used for past extraction methods, the energy loss percentage could sometimes be as high as ¾. That’s a lot of waste when you think about it.

Not everyone can keep paying seven dollars a gallon here in the U.S. for gasoline. In truth, even the ones who can afford it don’t want to. We burn through billions of gallons of the stuff worldwide every year, polluting the environment and avoiding clean energy. For our next multi-part series at TI&IT, let’s take an in depth look at just how the brilliant minds at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are looking to change this. But first, let me tell you a little bit about a War, the telegraph, and four men named Grove, Bacon, Olds and Ford.

Telegraph For Mr. Grove

Believe it or not, fuel cell technology goes back a lot further than you think. In fact, it technically predates the Civil War. I know what you’re thinking, “You’re full of crap guy. The combustion engine came way before the fuel cell.” The truth is, you’re wrong. But at the same time, you’re also right.

In 1839 a man named Sir William Grove went to work on what would later earn him the sobriquet “The father of the fuel cell.” It was a power cell of sorts that consisted of a zinc anode in dilute sulfuric acid and a platinum cathode in concentrated nitric acid, the two separated by a porous ceramic pot.

Grove discovered that by arranging two platinum electrodes with one end of each immersed in a container of sulfuric acid and the other ends separately sealed in containers of oxygen and hydrogen, a constant current would flow between the electrodes. The sealed containers held water as well as the gases, and he noted that the water level rose in both tubes as the current flowed.

This invention changed the technological landscape. The Grove Cell was quickly implemented into American telegraph systems. The cells were grouped together and soldered on a wooden table to increase their output. This configuration was known as a battery. (And as we all know a “cell” is the smallest component of a “battery.”) This became a staple in the Telegraph system until the time of the Civil War.

But a problem soon set in. The high volume of traffic across the lines would sometimes cause the Grove Cells to overheat and convert the chemicals to gas causing them to discharge Nitrogen Dioxide. This is bad. Nitrogen Dioxide is toxic if inhaled. The good news? NO2 has a distinct and acrid odor to it, so detection is relatively easy. However it can anesthetize the nose, meaning after you smell enough of it, you don’t notice it anymore. In a large quantity it will lead to Pulmonary Edema (fluid in the lungs). If overexposed you basically drown from the inside out.

Luckily it was replaced by the Daniell Cell, but that’s another story for another day…now what was I babbling about? Oh yes, fuel cells.

While the concept of hydrogen power was nothing new, (British scientists William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle had already described the process of using electricity to decompose water into hydrogen and oxygen in 1800), Grove took it a step further by describing a new kind of battery. In 1843, he developed what he called, a gas voltaic battery. The funniest part of it all however was that, while it operated by producing electrical current through the melding of hydrogen and oxygen, the technology and understanding of chemical properties was limited by the times.

In short, while it was neat to look at in awe, nobody really knew how it worked.

German scientist Ludwig Mond and his assistant Charles Langer were the next to capture the public’s attention with what was truly the first fuel cell. In fact, they’re the ones who coined it the name. Even though Grove is considered the founder of the technology, these two took everything to a whole new level.

They introduced porous electrodes which increased the productivity, and in 1889, they built the first working fuel cell that operated using air and coal gas to cause the reaction. It was truly phenomenal, but they still weren’t entirely sure about what was happening. It seemed some materials were more conductive than others and they just couldn’t figure out why.

It wouldn’t be until almost the turn of the century that Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald, a founder of the field of physical chemistry, provided much of the theoretical understanding of how fuel cells operate. In 1893, he experimentally determined the interconnected roles of the various components of the fuel cell: electrodes, electrolyte, oxidizing and reducing agents, anions (a negative ion), and cations (a positive ion).

But there was still work to be done in order to perfect fuel cells. And a man named Francis Bacon was determined to make that happen.

Submarines and Spaceships

Pictured above is Francis Bacon standing proudly in front of the first somewhat efficient Fuel Cell ever developed. (And Lordy Almighty it’s a biggun!) See, Bacon’s design differed from Grove’s and Ludwig Mond’s significantly, as well it should. While the other two were researchers and scientists not used to working with high temperatures and huge pressures in heavy machinery, Bacon was an engineer. (Remember to respect your Engineers in the scientific community ladies and gentlemen! You may dream it up, but these guys are the ones who build it!)

He proposed that with the right changes made to the original design that the Fuel Cell could be a viable source of power for Submarines. Building off the work of Emil Bauer just a few years before him and his research into Fuel Cells and high temperatures, Francis Bacon hit the lab and began wrenching away on his invention. His discoveries opened the door for all modern research into Fuel Cell technology.

He first concluded that the diluted acidic solutions used to power the Fuel Cells currently available just wouldn’t cut it. The chemicals were far too corrosive to be truly efficient. He replaced the acid mixture with potassium hydroxide which wouldn’t damage the electrodes as much. The next change he made was even more significant. The platinum cathodes that Grove had used as his primary method of conducting electrolysis were switched out for much cheaper activated nickel electrodes.

In 1940 he moved to London to continue his research with a little more funding and equipment. It was here he discovered his “Eureka!” moment. Bacon developed the first double-cell with one unit for generating the hydrogen and oxygen gases and the other for the fuel cell. This could be reversed so that it acted as both an electrolyzer and a fuel cell. But problems were encountered due to the high operating temperatures and pressures and the corrosive nature of the chemicals.

The world was impressed to say the least and fuel cells moved from the realm of obscurity and scientific curiosity into the realm of, “hey, these may actually be useful!” The government gave him access to porous nickel, an invention so strange that it was actually protected under the Official Secrets Act. He used it to develop electrodes with large pores on the gas side and finer ones on the electrolyte side. This resulted in a much more stable product. The government began throwing funding at Bacon by the fistfuls.

Instead of embezzling this money (like we would in modern times *eye roll*) Francis actually used it for the betterment of mankind and in 1959 he built the Hydroxide Fuel Cell pictured above. But instead of going into the ocean the world had another idea for this wondrous new technology. And no, it wasn’t bombs.

Pictured above is a cutaway of the Gemini V fuel cell. As the Soviet Union was sending Sputnik up into Space, the United States knew it couldn’t just rest on its laurels, we had to compete. Bacon’s fuel cell model became the standard after outperforming standard battery power of the time by over 200 times the longevity of safe operation.

While the design may have changed over the years, variations of Bacon’s original fuel cell are used today to put spacecraft into orbit. During the Apollo missions, fuel cells were also used to produce clean drinking water. While they were capable of splitting hydrogen molecules from oxygen molecules they could also put them back together. (Hydrogen plus oxygen equals yummy nutritious water!)

It’s too bad that American’s favor cheap over innovation, a trend met with recent unrest over jobs leaving North America to head to China. But as Henry Ford discovered, an assembly line trumps manual progress every time.

Moving Forward

With the advent of the internal combustion engine, fuel cells seemed to fall to the wayside. While they were developed alongside fuel cells technically, the mass beginnings of petroleum excavation in the mid-1850s began to degrade public interest. After all, fuel cells weren’t widely understood, capable of producing toxic gases, and didn’t provide the same amount of power and efficiency that ICEs did.

China had already proven to the world the efficient nature of division of labor. To explain it, let’s modernize it a little bit. Pretend you work at McDonald’s as a cashier. Your duties involve interacting with the customer, taking the order, exchanging currency, and handing the customer a receipt. The order then goes to the back where a fry cook makes the burgers and French Fries. Another worker then comes up, bags the food, and hands it to the customer. At the end of the day another worker cleans the dishes while a manager counts all the income that was made that day in the back office before dropping the deposit off to the bank.

The splitting and designation of these tasks is called division of labor.

And of course the brilliant Chinese had developed this process.

Industrialization also brought about the decline of the fuel cell technology. It gave us machines that could cut and smooth parts using jigs and fixtures to guide them. The only human interactions were pressing a button, moving a platform, and placing the material to be cut. These were called interchangeable parts. Fast, accurate, and efficient, this lead to the assembly line.

While a man named Ransom Olds (you may remember him from his namesake, the “Oldsmobile”) developed the assembly line process, Henry Ford is often incorrectly credited. Ford did NOT invent the assembly line; he just perfected the process by adding conveyor belts into the mix. This resulted in the ability to build an entire Model T automobile in approximately an hour and a half. Now that’s production.

Luckily though fuel cells didn’t die out entirely and were just pushed aside temporarily.

Until now.

The “Anodes” of History

We too often think of fuel cells as being “new technology”, but as you can see, their rich history takes us back now almost two centuries! While we may have improved on the materials and costs of building fuel cells, and we understand now how they do what they do, the core of them has never changed. They still require electrodes, they still require chemical production, and they still aren’t as energy efficient as the internal combustion. However…

Recent advances in Green Technology (and I literally mean “Green”) have put fuel cells back into the mainstream again. Now that scientists and OPEC executives are beginning to grow squirrely over potentially dwindling petroleum wells, this could be the technology that saves the human race from ourselves.

Tomorrow we’re going to talk about how modern fuel cells operate and what they’re being used for currently. We’ll also discuss the various methods that go into creating them and who is pioneering the field now. Plus, a new way of gathering the fuel for the cells that should “leaf” you totally breathless. Hope you enjoyed the first part of this guys and gals! And thank you so much for reading To Infinity And…In Theory, it truly means the world to me.

-       Ryan Sanders

(Dilbert, from the gut-bustingly hilarious Scott Adams)

Thank you for reading this article on the history of the fuel cell. If you would like to know more about any of the above material you can by following any of the links below. Feel free to share this on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, or any other Social Media site you may use. Happy learning everyone!

*Some time frames may be subject to discrepancy. Dates used in the article above are the assumed time frames within 1-3 years as information on specificities vary depending on the source. While I try to remain as accurate as possible, I am only as accurate as my sources. Thank you for your understanding.*

-       History of the Internal Combustion Engine

-       Applications of Fuel Cells

-       A timeline of events in Fuel Cell history

-       History of Fuel Cells and their correlation to modern trends

-       Full explanation and history of the Olds/Ford Assembly Lines

-       Early Fuel Cells in NASA applications

-       Wiki entry on Sir William Robert Grove

-       Brief history of the telegraph and use of the Grove Cells

The Gold (Nanoparticle) Rush of '09 (Cancer's Worst Nightmare)

From Alchemy to Augmentation

There is a common misunderstanding when people talk about Alchemy. The tendency is to think of it as the ancient art of turning iron and lead into precious metals like gold and silver. The reality is that Alchemy is the closest the ancients ever came to understanding how chemistry works.

Ancient Egypt is said to be the birthplace of Alchemy. At its core, alchemy used chemical elements which we now understand much better, but in those times, it looked like black magic. Think about it, you just dropped a chunk of rock into a bucket, added some chemicals, and next thing you know it separated the gold and the silver from it. Suddenly you’re a sorcerer! That’s some cool stuff!

See, there’s this big rock, called the Emerald Tablet, located in Egypt, thought to be written by the Greek God Hermes himself, and translated by many brilliant minds over the centuries (Including Isaac Newton who, while he wasn’t solving how the universe works, was trying to decipher a 36,000 year old tablet!) that is said to contain the secrets to arts of alchemy itself. There are dozens of translations and the reality is, there is no way of knowing if any of them are correct.

Plato, Leonardo Da Vinci, Aristotle, Copernicus, Kepler, even Napoleon Bonaparte was known to have an obsession with this dark art. So why was alchemy so enticing to these men? Probably because they were men who couldn’t just sit around when there were mysteries to solve. And this tablet was one of their greatest mysteries of all.

Alchemy works on a system of the number seven. Why this is so important, I do not know as I don’t fully understand alchemy entirely but I do know the “Tria Prima” was added to the basic elements to keep with this scheme. Sulfur, Mercury, Salt, Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. Sulfur, Mercury, and salt are considered the Tria Prima (The Three Primes). Sulfur represents the omnipresent spirit of life, mercury is the fluid connection between the high and the low, and salt is the base matter.

There are also seven primary metals that correspond with seven of the planets in our solar system (well six of them anyway…) each one of these metals has an element and an astrological symbol that corresponds with them as well. All of these things combine into the art of the alchemist. They essentially united Astrology with Chemistry and Earth Science because there was no understanding of the separation back then.

The seven primary metals and their celestial bodies are:

1.    Gold – Sun

2.    Silver – Moon (not a planet!)

3.    Copper – Venus

4.    Iron – Mars

5.    Tin – Jupiter

6.    Mercury – Mercury (duh…)

7.    Lead – Saturn

Notice that gold is on top? It’s a pretty important element.

On top of the seven metals there are seven processes associated with these as well. The first step is Calcination, the second is Dissolution, third process is Separation, Conjunction is fourth, the fifth is Fermentation, then Distillation, followed by Coagulation. (Starting to sound a little more like chemistry?)

There is evidence of this in 4^th century Rome as well, in the form of dichroic glass. What is dichroic glass you ask? Its glass that has small particles of gold added to it which makes visual effects of color changing when light passes through it.

So after all that it brings me to what we’re going to discuss today. Gold, on a nanoscale. I know what you’re saying, “If we’re just going to talk about nanoparticles then why are you telling me all this crap about ancient sorcery?” Well because in order to understand what happened to lead us here entirely, it helps to know a little bit about what these scientists were actually trying to accomplish versus what they did.

The Lycurgus cup was thought to have been made accidentally. While the artisan was painstakingly grinding the glass down to complement the metal rim, it’s likely some gold and silver dust contaminated the glass, creating the stunning visual effect it’s known for. I know what you’re saying now too, “Gold? Uh, dude? That’s red…” Yep, sure is. Red as a baboon’s booty.

See when gold particles are broke down to the nanoscale they refract light differently from when they are in a bar or coin format. When they are broken down to one of their smallest usable forms and suspended in a colloidal solution (water basically) they turn red. As they clump together they start to turn blue. Remember that, because that’s going to be important soon.

Before we get to that however, let’s talk about how we make GNPs (Gold Nanoparticles).

Paracelsus and Faraday

In the 16^th century there was a man named Paracelsus. He was a physician who didn’t believe in following the texts of the ancients but preferred to observe in the here and now. His medical approach is still taught today. He was a botanist and an astrologer. Psychology also credits him with being its father, as it’s noted he was one of the first to observe the afflictions rooted in mental illness.

But perhaps what’s more important for us here today is his alchemy. While dabbling with the ancient arts he managed to synthesize and document the first historical evidence of potable gold! Nowadays we would call this solution Colloidal Gold, or Nanoparticles. What he called it was “Aurium Potabile”, what it was nicknamed was the elixir of life.

This process, which had already been used for staining glass, was now discovered to have medicinal properties!

Enter, Michael Faraday.

In the 19^th century was a young self-educated man named Michael Faraday. He would go on to discover electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism, and the laws of electrolysis. He’d invent the dynamo, and even found the Christmas lectures! But first, he had to assist another chemist named Humphry Davy.

While working with Davy he discovered two new compounds of Chlorine. Not too shabby for a man that basically taught himself everything he knew through watching others and reading in his spare time. It was this work, which in 1847, would lead him to an incredible “Eureka!” moment. While experimenting with Paracelsus’ work he discovered the optical properties of gold particles (the change from red to blue and why they were doing this).

That was considered to be the birthplace of Nanoscience as it was the first documented quantum-level observation of its type. But let’s face it, Paracelsus really deserves some of the credit. For once, snake oil salesmen peddled something of value.

A Small Fortune

The first image above is of the atomic structure of the gold nanoparticles. The one below shows how the gold fuses to organic compounds. The second image is very important because it leads me to our next discussion. What is the use of GNPs?

With crazy advances in genetics and Faraday’s discovery of their optical properties, scientists are now using these tiny precious particles to detect cancer and genetic defect markers in human beings. Depending on their size and synthesis properties, GNPs have a variety of uses, spanning from cancer detection and antibody delivery, to Cystic Fibrosis gene markers in an embryo’s DNA.

What happens is that these particles form bonds with the surface structure of the cells that cause these illnesses. When that happens the GNPs clump together on that marker; as the particles clump together the mass increases causing light to refract differently. The end result is a change in the spectrum of color we observe from red to blue. Depending on what they’re testing for, when this color change occurs, it shows them the offender is present.

It’s still a subject under much study and research, but the future of GNPs is certain. They are here to stay. The use of these makes cancer scanning more affordable and creates an earlier detection method. It also requires less invasive procedures and may eventually replace the use of deadly carcinogens (Such as radio/chemo therapy) in order to kill the cancer cells.

Coupled with other nanotechnology we could witness the end of Cancer in my generation’s lifetime. I don’t know about you, but that is maybe one of the coolest things I’ve ever heard.

Stay Golden Ponyboy

Gold may be responsible for our Nation’s eventual economic collapse (that and greed of course) but it may also be our savior as well. We talked a little bit about its medical uses and what makes it so much more practical to use because of its optical qualities. But it has other uses as well, before it became cancer’s number one enemy, the ancients had other uses for this incredible substance.

We mentioned the Lycurgus cup. When GNPs were added in the form of tiny specks to the molten glass mixture it changed the optical refractory qualities. We also talked about why they did this, as they bond together and gain more mass it diffuses light differently. So what other uses does this have besides tableware and pretty Church windows?

John Herschel discovered it was useful in photography! Aside from coining the terms positive and negative, he also invented the cyanotype (using cyanide mixtures in print development) which was the precursor the blueprint. But let’s talk about printing with the gold, or Chrysotype.

In 1841 a photographer named Talbot discovered the effects of printing using silver. In 1842 John Herschel discovered that gold could be used as well. It was unclear back then which light-sensitive metal would win out in the end but it certainly set the stage. Printing with gold is still around today, although they use mixtures now, as the closer you approach to 100% gold the lower quality results.

There are many qualities about this substance still unknown and many applications we probably have yet to discover. With the properties of colloidal gold, gold nanoparticles have applications in various fields, including electron microscopy, electronics, nanotechnology and materials science. Only time will tell what all we can actually do with these cool micro particles.

In the meantime, stay golden.

-Ryan Sanders

If you want to read more about Gold Nanoparticles, follow any of the links below, and as always, feel free to share this around! Thanks for reading, happy learning guys!

-       Wikipedia entry on Michael Faraday

-       An article explaining Paracelsus’ connection to alchemy

-       Lecture on Nanotechnology and GNPs

-       “How Stuff Works” article on GNPs

-       History on printing processes

-       Documentary on Alchemy