How sunburn inspired a new way to store energy

An important development from the financial markets: How sunburn inspired a new way to store energyJust now Share Save Add as preferred on GoogleChris BaraniukTechnology ReporterJeff Liang, UCSBCalifornia's strong sun inspired Grace Han's energy storage researchThe sun does shine, sometimes, in Boston – but not like this. When chemistry professor Grace Han first visited southern California from Boston some years ago, she noticed the difference. How her skin would tingle with the first signs of irritation after just a few hours outside.

Last year, she moved to take a job at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and regularly began wearing a large-brimmed hat, sunglasses and plenty of sun cream. Being a chemistry professor, she had already done her research. "I was just reading about DNA photochemistry – for leisure," she recalls.

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That's when she realised that DNA molecules in people's skin that get damaged by sunburn could help her. Those molecules change shape when irradiated by the sun, flexing into a strained version of their regular form. For decades, scientists have sought out molecules that can twist their shape, storing energy in the process, and then be prompted to revert to their original shape, releasing the stored energy on demand.

A bit like setting and later triggering a mousetrap. It's known as molecular solar thermal (Most) energy storage and is a potentially very cheap and emissions-free way of supplying heat. These Most systems could store energy for many months or even years.

Researchers have previously had limited success with the technology, but, thanks to the California sun, Han knew what to try next. It's important to activate the shape-shifting of the energy-storing molecules in a smooth, repeatable way. Luckily, millions of years of evolution has perfected this process when it occurs in our skin – we are all living chemistry labs, in a sense.

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DNA molecules in our skin have evolved so that they can repair their sun-contorted shape with the help of an enzyme called photolyase. And such molecules, realised Han, were perfect candidates for an energy storage system. "They are very, very small," she explains.

"And can store a massive amount of energy per mass. "Han PQ Nguyen, UCSBMolecules created at UCSB trapped enough energy to boil off a small amount of waterIn a paper published in February, she and colleagues described the most promising energy storage system of this kind to date, at least in terms of its energy density. It was powerful enough to cause a "very tiny kettle" in a vial to boil off a small amount of water rapidly, says Han.

Her students, who carried out that part of the study, rushed to tell her how it went. "When I actually saw the video and saw how quickly the entire solution was boiling, that was really remarkable," Han recalls. She emphasises that computer analyses predicting how the molecule would perform, made by her collaborator Kendall Houk at the University of California, Los Angeles, and his team, were crucial to the work.

Financial markets are tracking the development closely as investors assess the likely impact.