Pollution has become a major concern, not just for our planet, but for our country too. India has been topping the charts in contributing to a lot of carbon emissions and with our resources depleting further, there won't be any way to tackle this issue.

Fortunately for us, a team of scientists has already begun work in finding an alternative to tackle this ongoing issue and it involves India's finest metal-gold.

© India science wire

The folks at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) have developed a new material they call 'Black Gold', which will be used to deteriorate the effect pollution has on the atmosphere. The metal is manipulated, so it's not in its purest form. There is no chemical or any other metal added to it but instead, there is modification done to the amount of space between each nano-particle.

"We have not doped gold nanoparticles with any other material or added other materials. We varied the inter-particle distance between gold nanoparticles using a cycle-by-cycle growth approach by optimizing the nucleation-growth step, using dendritic fibrous nanosilica, whose fibres were used as the deposition site for gold nanoparticles," explained Vivek Polshettiwar, who led the research team, while speaking to India Science Wire

© TIFR

In short, they 'grew' the gold in the nanostructure they wanted, by laying the silicon foundation first. The result from that is a black material, hence the name 'Black Gold'.

Black Gold, as a material, has the ability to absorb both visible light and the near-infrared radiation from the Sun as well, making it perfect for use in high-efficiency solar panels. It can also be used as a catalyst to convert carbon Dioxide from the air into methane, by using the solar energy it captures.

"If we develop an artificial tree with leaves made out of back gold, it can perform artificial photosynthesis, capturing carbon dioxide and converting it into fuel and other useful chemicals," added Polshettiwar.

Because of this material's ability to absorb solar energy, researchers believe it can be used in portable nano-heaters, for converting sea-water into drinking water, taking care of our water depletion woes!

© Indian science wire

This invention has definitely been a breakthrough of sorts. Not only will it help generate renewable energy but also solve the carbon emissions problem, if used on a larger scale.d

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