Structural and Mechanistic Studies of the Oxygen Evolving Centre in Photosystem II

从电力和水源（如海水）生产氢燃料是本文所述研究的最终目标。这是一个整体计划的一部分，称为“人工光合作用”，以产生清洁的可再生能源。目前的项目是这个雄心勃勃的计划的重要一步，直接解决了一个关键的障碍，必须克服，使人工光合作用可行。这个障碍是水有效地电转化为氢和氧，这是一个两部分的过程，其中后者是化学上最困难的。该项目旨在通过破译并在技术上模仿植物进行这些过程的高效方式来“窃取自然的秘密”。

Hydrogen fuel production from electricity and water sources, such as sea water, represents the ultimate goal for the research described here. This is part of an overall scheme, called "Artificial Photosynthesis", to generate clean renewable energy. The present project is an important step in this ambitious program and directly addresses a key hurdle which must be overcome to make artificial photosynthesis feasible. This hurdle is the efficient electrical conversion of water into hydrogen and oxygen, a two part process of which the latter is the most chemically difficult. The project aims to 'steal nature's secrets', by deciphering and then technologically mimicking the highly efficient means by which plants carry out these processes.