Bacteriorhodopsin Enhances Efficiency of Perovskite Solar Cells

Das, Subhabrata; Wu, Congcong; Song, Zhaoning; Hou, Yuchen; Koch, Rainer; Somasundaran, P.; Priya, Shashank; Barbiellini, B.; Venkatesan, Renugopalakrishnan

doi:10.1021/acsami.9b06372

Cited by 36 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 33 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Proteins: Das et al recently reported on how to enhance PSC's efficiencies through protein functionalization of the TiO 2 electrode. [362] In particular, the bacteriorhodopsin (bR) protein was immobilized on the TiO 2 surface by covalent attachment of the protein via cysteine groups. The bR molecules between TiO 2 and the perovskite layers have a key role in enhancing the photon absorption and hot carrier transfer, as the transfer of photogenerated electrons from the perovskite absorber to bR molecules through the Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) process.…”

Section: Charge Transport Layermentioning

confidence: 99%

Merging Biology and Photovoltaics: How Nature Helps Sun‐Catching

Cavinato

Fresta

Ferrara

et al. 2021

Advanced Energy Materials

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

conditions. This makes difficult to further reduce the cost of electricity production. [7,8] Furthermore, although solar energy is a renewable source, it does not mean that any kind of photovoltaics (PV) is sustainable. For instance, silicon is an essential material in electronics and solar industries and, up to date, is irreplaceable. Despite its abundancy in Earth's crust, it is for the vast majority (80%) present as ferrosilicon, whose purification is expensive and highly pollutant. The production of 1 ton of silicon requires 6 tons of raw materials, almost 3 tons of Quartz, 1.5 tons of reducing agents, 1.5 tons of wood and 13 000 kWh of energy. [9,10] Therefore, in 2014 the EU commission included silicon metal in the critical raw material (CRM) list. [11] In this context, the third generation PV has reborn, offering cost-effective and efficient CRM-free devices with a lower reliance on the incident angle of light and integration in smart-end applications, like flexible and wearable devices, [12][13][14] fully transparent solar cells and windows, [15,16] and biocompatible devices. [17][18][19] The leading third generation SCs are organic solar cells (OSCs), [20][21][22] perovskite solar cells (PSCs), [23][24][25][26][27] and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). [28][29][30] Despite their versatile applications and high performances, sustainability still represents a major issue toward becoming an ideal energy technology in the mid-long term future. Among others, fullerene-based materials are toxic, [31] indium tin oxide (ITO) is brittle, chemically unstable, and expensive due to limited indium sources on Earth's crust. [32,33] Cobalt is also listed as CRM, [11] while cadmium, selenium, lead and ruthenium are toxic materials. [34,35] With regard to flexible devices, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is the standard substrate; though its environmental footprint is critical and its nonbiodegradable properties lead to harmful effects in living organisms. [36] This has fueled a strong cooperation among the fields of engineering, biology, chemistry, and physics to discover new strategies for cost-effectiveness preparation and implementation of bio-derived materials in highly performing PVs.In general, this cooperation constitutes a part of the emerging and multidisciplinary field of biophotonics, [37] which involves biomedical optics, [38] living light, [39][40][41] biomimetic, biomaterials and bioengineered compounds, as well as fabrication/implementation methods applied to optoelectronics [42] and photonics, [43] among others. For instance, artificial lightning and biology have been recently merged with the implementation of cellulose, chitosan, silk, and fluorescent proteins as Accomplishing sustainability in optoelectronics, in general, and photovoltaics (PV), in particular, represents a crucial milestone in green photonics. Third generation PV technologies, such as organic solar cells (OSCs), perovskite solar cells (PSCs), and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have reached a mature age and are slowly making thei...

show abstract

Section: Charge Transport Layermentioning

confidence: 99%

Merging Biology and Photovoltaics: How Nature Helps Sun‐Catching

Cavinato

Fresta

Ferrara

et al. 2021

Advanced Energy Materials

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In such applications, the visible light absorption (λmax = 568 nm) and good photochemical stability of the bound retinal cofactor make bR a good photosensitizer. Recently, the incorporation of bR in a methylammonium lead(II) iodide (MAPbI3) based perovskite solar cell improved the overall energy conversion compared to the same architecture without bR, with performance gain attributed to a decreased charge carrier recombination in the photoactive layer [140]. Such applications do not directly utilize the light induced proton release activity of bR, though some researchers have taken advantage of this to produce photoelectrochemical devices for generating transient photocurrents induced by changes in the local proton concentrations, of interest in the biosensors and wearable devices fields [141,142].…”

Section: Bacteriorhodopsin As a Catalyst To Improve Device Performancesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Green Catalysts: Applied and Synthetic Photosynthesis

Teodor¹,

Sherman²,

Ison³

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The biological process of photosynthesis was critical in catalyzing the oxygenation of Earth’s atmosphere 2.5 billion years ago, changing the course of development of life on Earth. Recently, the fields of applied and synthetic photosynthesis have utilized the light-driven protein-pigment supercomplexes central to photosynthesis for the photocatalytic production of fuel and other various valuable products. The reaction center Photosystem I is of particular interest in applied photosynthesis due to its high stability post-purification, non-geopolitical limitation, and its ability to generate the greatest reducing power found in Nature. These remarkable properties have been harnessed for the photocatalytic production of a number of valuable products in the applied photosynthesis research field. These primarily include photocurrents and molecular hydrogen as fuels. The use of artificial reaction centers to generate substrates and reducing equivalents to drive non-photoactive enzymes for valuable product generation has been a long-standing area of interest of the synthetic photosynthesis research field. In this review, we cover advances in these areas and further speculate synthetic and applied photosynthesis as photocatalysts for the generation of valuable products.

show abstract

“…Both protein–pigment complexes have shown remarkable thermal stability and their structural, biochemical, and photophysical properties have been extensively studied [ 15 , 16 ]. Similarly, both PSI and bR have also been widely used in a variety of biotechnological applications, most notably in BSSCs [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

PEDOT-Carbon Nanotube Counter Electrodes and Bipyridine Cobalt (II/III) Mediators as Universally Compatible Components in Bio-Sensitized Solar Cells Using Photosystem I and Bacteriorhodopsin

Teodor

Monge

Aguilar

et al. 2022

IJMS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In nature, solar energy is captured by different types of light harvesting protein–pigment complexes. Two of these photoactivatable proteins are bacteriorhodopsin (bR), which utilizes a retinal moiety to function as a proton pump, and photosystem I (PSI), which uses a chlorophyll antenna to catalyze unidirectional electron transfer. Both PSI and bR are well characterized biochemically and have been integrated into solar photovoltaic (PV) devices built from sustainable materials. Both PSI and bR are some of the best performing photosensitizers in the bio-sensitized PV field, yet relatively little attention has been devoted to the development of more sustainable, biocompatible alternative counter electrodes and electrolytes for bio-sensitized solar cells. Careful selection of the electrolyte and counter electrode components is critical to designing bio-sensitized solar cells with more sustainable materials and improved device performance. This work explores the use of poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) modified with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (PEDOT/CNT) as counter electrodes and aqueous-soluble bipyridine cobaltII/III complexes as direct redox mediators for both PSI and bR devices. We report a unique counter electrode and redox mediator system that can perform remarkably well for both bio-photosensitizers that have independently evolved over millions of years. The compatibility of disparate proteins with common mediators and counter electrodes may further the improvement of bio-sensitized PV design in a way that is more universally biocompatible for device outputs and longevity.

show abstract

Bacteriorhodopsin Enhances Efficiency of Perovskite Solar Cells

Cited by 36 publications

References 33 publications

Merging Biology and Photovoltaics: How Nature Helps Sun‐Catching

Merging Biology and Photovoltaics: How Nature Helps Sun‐Catching

Green Catalysts: Applied and Synthetic Photosynthesis

PEDOT-Carbon Nanotube Counter Electrodes and Bipyridine Cobalt (II/III) Mediators as Universally Compatible Components in Bio-Sensitized Solar Cells Using Photosystem I and Bacteriorhodopsin

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About