A man-made leaf may hold the potential to help combat carbon dioxide emissions that lead to climate change.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) have created an artificial leaf prototype that is designed to cut down on carbon dioxide — the main greenhouse gas behind global warming and climate change, experts say. CO2 is released by humans through things like electricity, transportation and steel production.
In 2016, carbon dioxide made up roughly 81.6% of all greenhouse-gas emissions in the US caused by humans, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.
The researchers behind the leaf, who published their work in a recent paper in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, are the latest group to try to mimic the work that real leaves do in order to fight emissions.

Meenesh Singh, an assistant professor in UIC’s department of chemical engineering, and Aditya Prajapati, a graduate student in his lab, are behind the artificial leaf prototype. According to Singh, the artificial leaf could be 10 times more efficient than real leaves at converting carbon dioxide to cut down on climate change and produce cleaner energy.
Singh’s motivation was to create a device that could work outside of a lab.
It works in the same way trees and plants absorb carbon dioxide through leaves and turns it into the fuel they need to live. The carbon, which is turned into carbohydrates, is stored while the oxygen is released back into the atmosphere.

But the artificial leaf doesn’t produce carbohydrates the way real plants do, and instead produces carbon monoxide to create cleaner synthetic fuels. It also produces oxygen gas that can be released into the atmosphere.
Singh said the leaf can be used on a small scale such as the roof of a house or on a larger scale at, say, a powerplant.
The cube-shaped artificial leaf features an acrylic covering and was made using artificial stomata to mimic the pore-like openings on real leaves. Artificial stoma is a membrane that allows the exchange of negatively charged ions.
A lot of research is being conducted around artificial leaves and even artificial trees. But the UIC team has created a prototype that’s been tested in a lab and can work in real-world conditions.

Still, it’s unclear when something like this will be ready for large-scale commercial use.
Singh’s prototype can work using diluted forms of CO2. This more closely resembles the CO2 in the atmosphere as a byproduct of industrial processes. Most other prototypes rely on pure CO2, which is closer to the carbon dioxide found in carbonated water than it is to emissions. Because Singh’s leaf can use diluted CO2 it can pull it straight from the air and work outside of laboratory conditions. Singh said the prototype is currently being tested to see at what rate it can continuously capture carbon from the air.
Larry Curtiss, a distinguished fellow at the Argonne National Laboratory, believes technology like what’s come out of UIC could potentially be effective as a solution for decreasing harmful gases in the atmosphere.
“This type of innovative lab-scale research is one step to an eventual commercial system that can help to significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions,” said Curtiss.

Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei says the US government’s campaign against the Chinese tech company risks damaging America’s international reputation.

“If this US administration always treats other countries, companies or individuals in a ferocious way, then no one would dare invest in the United States,” Ren said in an interview Wednesday with CNN at Huawei’s headquarters in the city of Shenzhen.
The US government has stepped up its efforts in recent months to persuade allies to block the use of Huawei’s telecommunications equipment in 5G wireless networks, alleging that the Chinese government could use it for spying. Huawei has denied any of its products pose a security risk and called on the Trump administration to provide evidence to back up its claims.

Ren, who is also Huawei’s CEO, was full of praise for the US economy, describing it as a driver of innovation. But he said his company, the world’s biggest telecommunications equipment maker, was being treated unfairly.
That’s why it decided to make its most aggressive move yet to combat the American pressure. It filed a lawsuit against the US government last week challenging a recent law barring federal agencies from using Huawei products.
“We chose to have our voice heard at this moment because the US government considers us a threat to national security,” Ren said. “They have to have evidence. Everybody in the world is talking about cybersecurity and they are singling out Huawei.”

“What about Ericsson? What about Cisco? Don’t they have cybersecurity issues?” he asked, referring to top Western makers of networking equipment. “Why is Huawei being singled out?”
Ren, 74, has built Huawei up over three decades into a company that makes more than $100 billion in annual revenue and sells about as many smartphones around the world as Apple (AAPL). Its success has made him a billionaire.
He rejects any suggestion that the company is under the control of the Chinese government, insisting it’s a private company that’s owned by its employees. Ren said he would rather shut down the business than submit to demands from Beijing to use Huawei equipment for spying.

Trump’s ‘tactics are all wrong’
Huawei’s pushback has failed to deter the Trump administration from pursuing its campaign against the company. Shortly after Huawei filed its lawsuit last week, the US Ambassador to Germany sent the German government a letter warning that the United States would limit Berlin’s access to American intelligence if Huawei is allowed to help build 5G networks in the country.
Those are the kind of moves that Ren says will hurt the United States’ image with international investors as a great place to do business.

He described President Donald Trump as a great leader for cutting US taxes for businesses, but urged him to rethink his approach toward foreign countries and businesses.
“His tactics are all wrong,” Ren said. “If he intimidates a country today, threatens a company tomorrow or wantonly arrests someone, then no one would dare invest in the United States.”