Artificial leaf under the microscope - Since Daniel Nocera at MIT discovered a cobalt catalyst capable of splitting water, researchers have been trying to discover more about its structure and how it works. Now researchers in the US and Italy have used new techniques to gain a better insight into the structure and mechanism of these type of catalysts1 and hope that their research might lead to further improvements in the field2: References: 1. P Du et al, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2012, 134, 11096 (DOI: 10.1021/ja303826a). 2. S Berardi et al, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2012, 134, 11104 (DOI: 10.1021/ja303951z)