Photonics and Optoelectronics with Bacteria: Making Materials from Photosynthetic Microorganisms

Abstract

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Photonics and optoelectronics with bacteria: making materials from photosynthetic microorganisms (Adv. Funct. Mater. 2019, 1805521), which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201805521. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditionsfor Use of Self-Archived Versions.

Purple Bacteria and 3D Redox Hydrogels for Bioinspired Photo‐bioelectrocatalysis

“…However, little is known about the implementation of intact photoheterotrophic microorganisms in photo‐bioelectrochemical systems . They offer the unique possibility to develop light‐powered systems for the removal and monitoring of organic contaminants, and the simple photosynthetic system opens for a more straightforward development of hybrid artificial biological systems . Rhodobacter capsulatus ( R. capsulatus ) is a purple, non‐sulfur, photosynthetic bacterium characterized by a versatile metabolism that is particularly effective in photoheterotrophic conditions.…”

Photovoltage generation in enzymatic bio-hybrid architectures

“…RC, conjugate to or interacting with organic moieties in bio-hybrid systems, has been demonstrated as effective transducer of solar radiation [10][11][12]. These bio-hybrids have also been demonstrated as materials for biooptoelectronics [13,14], functionally integrated into devices [15][16][17] and exploited as active elements in bio-photonic power cells [18]. More recently, RC from R. sphaeroides has been deposited on the transparent gate electrode of electrolyte-gated organic transistors obtaining the Light-responsive Electrolyte-Gated Organic Transistor -LEGOT [19].…”

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

“…[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. [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. [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.…”

“…[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.…”