Integrating photon up- and down-conversion to produce efficient light-harvesting materials for enhancing natural photosynthesis

Abstract

Using light-harvesting materials to enhance natural photosynthesis is attracting much attention in both materials and plant research. The working efficiency of most light-harvesting materials is, however, compromised by a narrow...

An insight into the role of carbon dots in the agriculture system: a review

“…Composites of up-conversion nanomaterials (NaYF 4 :Yb,Er, and NaYF 4 :Yb,Tm) with CDs are also reported to enhance photosynthetic rates in plants such as mung bean and Arabidopsis thaliana . 115,116…”

Recent advances in aggregation-induced emission materials for enhancing solar energy utilization

“…More energy absorbed in photosynthetic pigments results in increased electron generation and transport, increased production of ATP and NADPH and increased amount of carbon fixation. 36 Chloroplast is the basic photosynthetic unit of photosynthetic plants. 37 Li and co-workers reported a hybrid photosynthetic system, composed of chloroplasts and AIE-active carbon dots (CD-AIEgens).…”

“…More energy absorbed in photosynthetic pigments results in increased electron generation and transport, increased production of ATP and NADPH and increased amount of carbon fixation. 36…”

Technology and Materials for Passive Manipulation of the Solar Spectrum in Greenhouses

“…While a small upconversion to UV photons might helpful in color/flavor/nutrient boosting, NIR‐to‐visible photon upconversion offers the possibility to combine thermal management and photosynthetic photon flux enhancement. Some pilot studies of the effect of upconverting systems combined with photosynthetic systems are promising—a 12% increase in photosynthetic rate has been observed in Arabidopsis thaliana under a film containing both downconverting luminophores as well as NIR → PAR upconverting luminophores under natural light supplemented with UV; [ 122 ] NIR → PAR upconverting films have been reported to increase the leaf number (12.5%), leaf area (33%), and chlorophyll content in tomato plants under artificial lighting [ 123 ] —these studies provide a starting point for materials whose properties and efficiency could be optimized further, and tested for a variety of crops under natural solar illumination. Efforts to improve the upconversion performance of materials under lower light intensities equivalent to the incident solar radiation intensity on earth, currently involve experimenting with material parameters, nanostructuring, use of photonic structures such as dielectric microlenses to concentrate the incident light, and using plasmonic structures to get local field enhancements.…”