Arturo Solís Herrera, surgeon by the Superior School of Medicine of the IPN, Ophthamologist by the UNAM and the Conde de Valenciana Hospital, and Neurophthalmologist by the National Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery, after conducting several investigations to know the causes of blindness detected, during 2002, the function of melanin, a substance that is capable of generating energy.
Constructor Electrico talked to the researcher about this important finding.
Melanin is located in the skin, in the hair, in the epithelium surrounding the retina, in the spinal cord and in other areas of the human body. This pigment determines the color of the skin, hair and iris of the eyes.
The doctor's discovery consisted in achieving, at room temperature and by means of natural or artificial light as the only source of energy, the splitting of the water molecule; thereby obtaining hydrogen and oxygen atoms, as well as high-energy electrons; or else, joining hydrogen and oxygen atoms and as a result obtaining water and electric current with melanins, the main or central electrolyzing material.
The use of melanins in hydrogen production systems is known as a photoelectrochemical method. These systems integrate a semiconductor material and a water electrolyzer into a monolithic design to produce hydrogen atoms directly from water using light as the sole energy source. According to his research, the challenge was to find a material that would support the entire process, and in that sense, melanins, their precursors, derivatives, variants and analogs allowed him to hit the target reasonably and efficiently.
“Melanin, which is chemically known as polyhydroxyindole, captures photonic energy and transforms it into chemical energy. This process, which I called human photosynthesis, is a chemical reaction that was not known in humans, only in plants,” says the researcher.
He also says that in the process of human photosynthesis, melanin is the equivalent of human chlorophyll. Melanin can dissociate the water molecule as chlorophyll does in plants. This is how Solis Herrera states that the first reaction in the life of plants and humans is the same: the transformation of light energy into free chemical energy.
“With melanin, it would seem that nature made a superchlorophyll, because chlorophyll has only one reaction center, but melanin has hundreds of reaction centers per gram of substance. Several research institutes have sought to take advantage of the fact that chlorophyll splits the water molecule to obtain hydrogen for energy purposes. However, once the chlorophyll is extracted from the leaf, after 20 seconds, it is permanently inactivated,” he says.
A powerful battery
Solís Herrera and his team of collaborators replaced chlorophyll with melanin to produce energy. This is how they created a battery called Bat-Gen.
Bat-Gen, says the researcher, accumulates and generates its own energy using melanin. Its duration is unlimited and its benefits are numerous. “For the first time in the history of mankind, with Bat-Gen we can illuminate the planet without heating it,” he says.
Melanin, the doctor explained, is more efficient than chlorophyll in capturing elementary particles of electromagnetic radiation (photons). According to his studies, two molecules of water, plus melanin and in the presence of photons of electromagnetic radiation, results in two molecules of hydrogen, one molecule of oxygen and four electrons. When the reaction proceeds from right to left, the hydrogen and oxygen atoms are rejoined, resulting in water and electricity. Melanin is unchanged and only catalyzes the reaction without any impairment of its molecule.
According to research, melanin captures the energy of photons, which are the elementary particles of electromagnetic radiation, and thereby extracts hydrogen from water. The time it takes to collect the energy needed to split the water molecule is equivalent to 3×10-12 seconds and the reaction in melanin is reversible.
Solis Herrera's prototype consists of a photoelectrochemical cell with a container in which melanin is deposited. Each cell contains 500 ml of melanin, which, when connected to a voltmeter, indicates between 300 and 470 millivolts. With 10 cells it is possible to light an LED lamp.
How melanin works
The splitting of the water molecule into hydrogen and oxygen atoms is a highly endergonic reaction due to the very stable association of hydrogen and oxygen atoms. The splitting of the water molecule (into hydrogen and oxygen atoms) in the laboratory requires the use of a strong electric current, or else raising the temperature to nearly 2 thousand °C. Melanin achieves the electrolyzation of water at room temperature using only the energy it obtains from light, mainly between 200 and 900 nanometers in wavelength, whether from natural or artificial sources, coherent or not, concentrated or scattered, monochromatic or polychromatic. The redox potential of the oxidized form of quinone is estimated to be approximately +1.1 V, which is strong enough to attract the bound low-energy electrons of the water molecule (redox potential of +0.82), which separates the molecule into hydrogen and oxygen atoms. This separation of the water molecule by photopigments is called photolysis. The formation of an oxygen molecule during photolysis is thought to require the simultaneous loss of four electrons from two water molecules according to the reaction:
2H2O ? 4H + + + O2 + 4e
The researcher assures that the first luminaire that was lit eight years ago is still in operation, and adds that “with each Bat-Gen an LED luminaire can be lit and its duration is thousands of years”.
The results show that 1 thousand liters of melanin provide 10 thousand V and 10 A. However, these figures can be modified depending on the size of the cells, the way they are connected to each other, the size and arrangement of the electrodes, and by modifications in the formula of the central substrate, among other factors.
