Enhanced Output from Biohybrid Photoelectrochemical Transparent Tandem Cells Integrating Photosynthetic Proteins Genetically Modified for Expanded Solar Energy Harvesting

Ravi, Sai Kishore; Yu, Zhimeng; Swainsbury, David J. K.; Ouyang, Jianyong; Jones, Michael R.; Tan, Swee Ching

doi:10.1002/aenm.201601821

Cited by 54 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…[55,61] Bacterial cells were grown under semiaerobic conditions in the dark and harvested by centrifugation. sphaeroides lacking the peripheral LH2 light-harvesting complex and the PufX protein.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…sphaeroides lacking the peripheral LH2 light-harvesting complex and the PufX protein. [55,61] Bacterial cells were grown under semiaerobic conditions in the dark and harvested by centrifugation. [63] Cells resuspended in 20 × 10 −3 m Tris (pH 8.0) were lysed in a Constant Systems Cell Disruptor, unbroken cells removed by centrifugation (18 000 rpm, 4 °C, 20 min) and membrane fragments isolated on one step density gradients formed from equal volumes of 40% and 15% (w/v) sucrose in 20 × 10 −3 m Tris (pH 8.0) that were ultracentrifuged at 38 000 rpm and 4 °C for 20 min.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With new developments in materials and methods for the conversion of solar energy into electric power and chemical fuels, photovoltaic and photo-electrochemical technologies are rapidly progressing enzymes/proteins [22][23][24][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48] with diverse synthetic materials including bulk semiconductors, [49,50] semiconductive nanowires, [51,52] quantum dots, [53] and plasmonic metal nanostructures. Unlike the simple additive effect of photocurrent enhancement seen, for example, in biohybrid tandem cells, [55] a synergistic effect that yields a photocurrent, which is more than just the sum of photocurrents from the individual photoactive components, is a possible advantage of a semiartificial photosynthetic system. Unlike the simple additive effect of photocurrent enhancement seen, for example, in biohybrid tandem cells, [55] a synergistic effect that yields a photocurrent, which is more than just the sum of photocurrents from the individual photoactive components, is a possible advantage of a semiartificial photosynthetic system.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[45,54] Despite progress in this area, a photoelectric synergy between synthetic and biological components has not been fully established. Unlike the simple additive effect of photocurrent enhancement seen, for example, in biohybrid tandem cells, [55] a synergistic effect that yields a photocurrent, which is more than just the sum of photocurrents from the individual photoactive components, is a possible advantage of a semiartificial photosynthetic system.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Optical Shading Induces an In‐Plane Potential Gradient in a Semiartificial Photosynthetic System Bringing Photoelectric Synergy

Ravi

Zhang

Wang

et al. 2019

Advanced Energy Materials

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and are believed to be key to sustainably overcoming the terawatt energy challenge the world currently faces. [1][2][3] The field of solar energy harvesting, previously dominated by inorganic materials, has in recent times witnessed the rapid ascent of organic materials in device designs. [4] In particular, much of the progress in this field has been driven by bioinspiration with nature's photosynthetic (PS) apparatus as a model material. [5][6][7] The aim of exploiting nature's designs for the harnessing of solar energy has attracted considerable efforts in the areas of artificial photosynthesis, [8,9] bio-photovoltaics and bio-electrochemical cells. [10][11][12][13][14] The "biomimetic solar cell," an application long sought after, aims to mimic the architecture of nature's reaction center (RC) and light-harvesting (LH) complexes in a fully artificial photosynthetic device for direct "solar electricity" generation. [15] Although the basic design principle of a dye-sensitized solar cell comes closer to this idea, [16] it is undeniably far from having any structural similarity with photosynthetic proteins, and developing supramolecular solar cells with artificial RCs [17] or other protein mimics has been extremely challenging. [18] Alongside the development of artificial photosynthetic systems, there have also been attempts to directly employ natural photosynthetic materials such as bacterial cells, [19][20][21] pigment proteins, [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] and membranes [30,31] as photoactive components for both direct electricity generation and fuel molecule synthesis.While, on the one hand, fully artificial photosynthetic systems lack the nanoscale architectural sophistication found in natural photosystems, on the other hand, natural photosystems are not always sufficiently robust or efficient outside their native environments. These and other factors limit the performance of a device employing solely natural or artificial materials as the photoactive component. [32] Bridging the two approaches, the idea of semiartificial photosynthetic systems is now gaining attention as it offers advantages over purely artificial or biological systems. [32,33] The concept has already shown signs of success in fuel generation by photo-electrochemical water splitting. [34,35] Direct electric current generation has also been studied in a wide variety of biohybrid devices, combining different photosynthetic microorganisms [19,20,36] and Semiartificial photosynthetic systems have opened up new avenues for harvesting solar energy using natural photosynthetic materials in combination with synthetic components. This work reports a new, semiartificial system for solar energy conversion that synergistically combines photoreactions in a purple bacterial photosynthetic membrane with those in three types of transition metal-semiconductor Schottky junctions. A transparent film of a common transition metal interfaced with an n-doped silicon semiconductor exhibits an in-plane potential gradient when a light-penetration variance is esta...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Optical Shading Induces an In‐Plane Potential Gradient in a Semiartificial Photosynthetic System Bringing Photoelectric Synergy

Ravi

Zhang

Wang

et al. 2019

Advanced Energy Materials

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show abstract

“…If our proteoliposomes form well-connected thin films on surfaces (preliminary characterization by atomic force microscopy is underway) they could have future applications as photo-active bio-hybrid materials, for example as coatings to enhance the current generated by photoelectrochemical devices. 44,45…”

Section: Assessment Of Proteoliposome Functionality When Associated Wmentioning

confidence: 99%

Proteoliposomes as energy transferring nanomaterials: enhancing the spectral range of light-harvesting proteins using lipid-linked chromophores

Hancock

Meredith

Connell

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Biology provides a suite of optically-active nanomaterials in the form of "light harvesting" protein-chlorophyll complexes, however, these have drawbacks including their limited spectral range. We report the generation of model lipid membranes (proteoliposomes) incorporating the photosynthetic protein Light-Harvesting Complex II (LHCII) and lipid-tethered Texas Red (TR) chromophores that act as a "bio-hybrid" energy transferring nanomaterial. The effective spectral range of the protein is enhanced due to highly efficient energy transfer from the TR chromophores (up to 94%), producing a marked increase in LHCII fluorescence (up to 3x).Our self-assembly procedure offers excellent modularity allowing the incorporation of a range of concentrations of energy donors (TR) and acceptors (LHCII), allowing the energy transfer efficiency (ETE) and LHCII fluorescence to be tuned as desired. Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FLIM) provides single-proteoliposome-level quantification of ETE, revealing distributions within the population and proving that functionality is maintained on a surface. Our membrane-based system acts as a controllable light harvesting nanomaterial with potential applications as thin films in photo-active devices.

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Biohybrid Photoprotein‐Semiconductor Cells with Deep‐Lying Redox Shuttles Achieve a 0.7 V Photovoltage

Singh

Ravi

et al. 2017

Adv Funct Materials

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Photosynthetic proteins transduce sunlight into biologically useful forms of energy through a photochemical charge separation that has a close to 100% quantum efficiency, and there is increasing interest in their use as sustainable materials in biohybrid devices for solar energy harvesting. This work explores a new strategy for boosting the open circuit voltage of photoelectrochemical cells based on a bacterial photosynthetic pigment-protein by employing highly oxidizing redox electrolytes in conjunction with an n-type silicon anode. Illumination generates electron-hole pairs in both the protein and the silicon electrode, the two being connected by the electrolyte which transfers electrons from the reducing terminal of the protein to photogenerated holes in the silicon valence band. A high open circuit voltage of 0.6 V is achieved with the most oxidizing electrolyte 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-1-piperidinyloxy, and this is further improved to 0.7 V on surface modification of the silicon electrode to increase its surface area and reduce reflection of incident light. The photovoltages produced by these biohybrid protein/silicon cells are comparable to those typical of silicon heterojunction and dye-sensitized solar cells.

show abstract

Enhanced Output from Biohybrid Photoelectrochemical Transparent Tandem Cells Integrating Photosynthetic Proteins Genetically Modified for Expanded Solar Energy Harvesting

Cited by 54 publications

References 41 publications

Optical Shading Induces an In‐Plane Potential Gradient in a Semiartificial Photosynthetic System Bringing Photoelectric Synergy

Optical Shading Induces an In‐Plane Potential Gradient in a Semiartificial Photosynthetic System Bringing Photoelectric Synergy

Proteoliposomes as energy transferring nanomaterials: enhancing the spectral range of light-harvesting proteins using lipid-linked chromophores

Biohybrid Photoprotein‐Semiconductor Cells with Deep‐Lying Redox Shuttles Achieve a 0.7 V Photovoltage

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