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Researchers are a step closer toward perfecting a fully functional artificial leaf that will be capable of converting water into hydrogen and oxygen with the help of solar energy. 

"Initially, our artificial leaf did not work very well, and our diagnostic studies on why indicated that a step where a fast chemical reaction had to interact with a slow chemical reaction was not efficient," ASU chemistry professor Thomas Moore said in a statement. 

"The fast one is the step where light energy is converted to chemical energy, and the slow one is the step where the chemical energy is used to convert water into its elements hydrogen and oxygen."

Scientists addressed the limitations and finally were able to incorporate the process that looked more like natural one. 

"We looked in detail and found that nature had used an intermediate step," Moore said. "This intermediate step involved a relay for electrons in which one half of the relay interacted with the fast step in an optimal way to satisfy it, and the other half of the relay then had time to do the slow step of water oxidation in an efficient way."

According to scientists, the generated hydrogen can be used in number of utilities such as fuel of spacecraft, combustion engines and commercial aircraft. 

"[Hydrogen] is an environmentally friendly fuel that has the potential to reduce our dependence on imported oil," noted the U.S. Department of Energy.

The developments of the study is published in the Nature Chemistry.