At the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in San Francisco (USA), scientists from the Shanghai Jiaotong University (China) report the development of a new concept in artificial photosynthesis which could be harnessed "to exploit sustainable fuel resources". Dr. Tongxiang Fan (co-author of the study) "pointed out that using sunlight to split water into its components, hydrogen and oxygen, is one of the most promising and sustainable tactics to escape current dependence on coal, oil, and other traditional fuels". Hydrogen is in itself a green fuel because it produces only water on burning; no GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions are generated. Hydrogen could also be a stepping stone toward the production of other biofuels. The ACS website reports the method as follows: "The scientists first infiltrated the leaves of Anemone vitifolia - a plant native to China - with titanium dioxide (TiO₂) in a two-step process. Using advanced spectroscopic techniques, the scientists were then able to confirm that the structural features in the leaf favorable for light harvesting were replicated in the new TiO2 structure. Excitingly, the AIL (artificial inorganic leaf) are eight times more active for hydrogen production than TiO₂ that has not been 'biotemplated' in that fashion. AIL's also are more than three times as active as commercial photo-catalysts. Next, the scientists embedded nanoparticles of platinum into the leaf surface. Platinum, along with the nitrogen found naturally in the leaf, helps increase the activity of the artificial leaves by an additional factor of ten.".