Engineering purple bacterial photovoltaic complexes for device applications

工程紫色细菌光伏复合物用于设备应用

• 批准号: BB/I022570/1
• 负责人: Mike Jones
• 金额: $ 45.88万
• 依托单位: University of Bristol
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2012 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FI022570%2F1
• 关键词: Engineering; purple; bacterial; photovoltaic; complexes

This project is concerned with the first attempts to convert a protein that powers biological photosynthesis into a material that can be used at the heart of an efficient solar cell. The project comes at a time when there is growing interest in alternative technologies for providing mankind with increasing amounts of energy in ways that will not exacerbate environment change. Mankind is facing an energy crisis. It is estimated that our global energy demand will double by the middle of the 21st century, and could more than treble by 2100. For well-understood reasons increased burning of fossil fuels will not be able to meet this soaring energy demand, and although many of the alternative energy sources currently being considered may address need in the short term, they suffer from limited capacity, uneven geographical distribution, adverse environmental impact and political/security problems. The only source of alternative energy freely available across the whole planet is solar energy. Biological photosynthesis consumes around 250 terawatts of the sun's output annually, dwarfing the current 16 terawatt energy demand of the global population, but still only a tiny fraction of the 120,000 terawatts of solar energy incident on the Earth every year. Humans have always been reliant on the products of photosynthesis for the bulk of their energy, in a variety of ways, but there is now increasing interest in clean technological approaches to harvesting this free and largely benign source of energy. Photovoltaics, the direct generation of electric current from light energy, has become a familiar concept with the public through the advent of silicon-based solar panels. However this technology has its limitations, and there is a pressing need to develop alternative photovoltaic materials that are lighter, cheaper to produce, less reliant on rare elements, and are more efficient under non-optimal conditions. It is likely that in the future solar energy will be harvested through a wide range of technologies, each suited to particular conditions. One approach that has seen a rapid growth in interest over the last ten years is the use of natural photovoltaic proteins as a photovoltaic material. Plants, algae and bacteria exploit light energy through nanometer-sized proteins called reaction centres. These proteins capture light energy and convert it into a form that the organism can use, and in the key event light energy is used to move an electron along the length of the reaction centre, leaving a positive charge at one end and a negative charge at the other. Just as with the terminals of a battery, or a silicon solar panel, this difference in charge can be used as a source of power. It is already known that if reaction centres are carefully removed from a plant or bacterium, and attached in a particular way to an electrode and illuminated, an electric current can be generated. The next stage in the evolution of this technology is to adapt natural reaction centres as more effective photovoltaic materials by altering their structures and various aspects of how they deal with light energy and electrons. This project is a first step in this direction, seeking to convert the reaction centre from a photosynthetic bacterium into a material that will produce larger photocurrents and is better suited to operation inside a solar cell rather than inside a bacterium. The attractive aspect of exploiting natural reaction centres in this way is that they convert harvested light energy into an electrical potential difference with an efficiency that is close to 100 %, they can be synthesised in large quantities through natural processes, and they have capacity for self-assembly and self-protection/repair. The longer term goal of the research is to develop new materials for harvesting solar energy, either through direct adaptation of natural proteins, or by providing new insights that will inspire new generations of photovoltaic materials.

该项目首次尝试将一种为生物光合作用提供动力的蛋白质转化为一种可用于高效太阳能电池核心的材料。该项目是在人们对替代技术越来越感兴趣的时候提出的，这些技术可以以不会加剧环境变化的方式为人类提供越来越多的能源。人类正面临能源危机。据估计，到21世纪中叶，全球能源需求将翻一番，到2100年可能会增加两倍以上。由于众所周知的原因，增加燃烧化石燃料将无法满足这一飙升的能源需求，尽管目前正在考虑的许多替代能源可能在短期内满足需求，但它们的能力有限，地理分布不均衡，对环境的不利影响和政治/安全问题。在整个地球上唯一可以免费获得的替代能源是太阳能。生物光合作用每年消耗约250太瓦的太阳能，使全球人口目前16太瓦的能源需求相形见绌，但仍然只是每年入射在地球上的120，000太瓦太阳能的一小部分。人类一直以各种方式依赖光合作用的产物来获取大部分能量，但现在人们对清洁技术方法越来越感兴趣，以获取这种免费且基本上是良性的能源。光电转换，即从光能直接产生电流，随着硅基太阳能电池板的出现，已经成为公众熟悉的概念。然而，这项技术有其局限性，迫切需要开发更轻，生产成本更低，对稀有元素依赖性更低，并且在非最佳条件下更有效的替代光伏材料。在未来，太阳能很可能会通过各种各样的技术来收集，每种技术都适合特定的条件。在过去的十年中，人们对一种方法的兴趣迅速增长，即使用天然光伏蛋白作为光伏材料。植物、藻类和细菌通过称为反应中心的纳米大小的蛋白质利用光能。这些蛋白质捕获光能并将其转化为生物体可以使用的形式，并且在关键事件中，光能用于沿着反应中心的长度沿着移动电子，在一端留下正电荷，在另一端留下负电荷。就像电池或硅太阳能电池板的端子一样，这种电荷差异可以用作电源。人们已经知道，如果反应中心被小心地从植物或细菌中取出，并以特定的方式附着在电极上并被照射，就可以产生电流。这项技术发展的下一个阶段是通过改变自然反应中心的结构以及它们如何处理光能和电子的各个方面，使其成为更有效的光伏材料。该项目是朝着这个方向迈出的第一步，试图将光合细菌的反应中心转化为一种能产生更大光电流的材料，并且更适合在太阳能电池内而不是在细菌内运行。以这种方式利用天然反应中心的吸引人的方面是，它们将收集的光能转化为电位差，效率接近100%，它们可以通过自然过程大量合成，并且它们具有自组装和自我保护/修复的能力。该研究的长期目标是开发用于收集太阳能的新材料，无论是通过直接适应天然蛋白质，还是通过提供新的见解来激发新一代光伏材料。

项目成果

Cytochrome c Provides an Electron-Funneling Antenna for Efficient Photocurrent Generation in a Reaction Center Biophotocathode.

• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b03278
• 发表时间: 2017-07-19
• 期刊: ACS applied materials & interfaces
• 影响因子: 9.5
• 作者: Friebe VM;Millo D;Swainsbury DJK;Jones MR;Frese RN
• 通讯作者: Frese RN

Plasmon-Enhanced Photocurrent of Photosynthetic Pigment Proteins on Nanoporous Silver

• DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201504020
• 发表时间: 2016-01-13
• 期刊: ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
• 影响因子: 19
• 作者: Friebe, Vincent M.;Delgado, Juan D.;Frese, Raoul N.
• 通讯作者: Frese, Raoul N.

Weak temperature dependence of P (+) H A (-) recombination in mutant Rhodobacter sphaeroides reaction centers.

• DOI: 10.1007/s11120-016-0239-9
• 发表时间: 2016-06
• 期刊: Photosynthesis research
• 影响因子: 3.7
• 作者: Gibasiewicz K;Białek R;Pajzderska M;Karolczak J;Burdziński G;Jones MR;Brettel K
• 通讯作者: Brettel K

Modelling of the cathodic and anodic photocurrents from Rhodobacter sphaeroides reaction centres immobilized on titanium dioxide.

• DOI: 10.1007/s11120-018-0550-8
• 发表时间: 2018-10
• 期刊: Photosynthesis research
• 影响因子: 3.7
• 作者: Białek R;Swainsbury DJK;Wiesner M;Jones MR;Gibasiewicz K
• 通讯作者: Gibasiewicz K

Demonstration of asymmetric electron conduction in pseudosymmetrical photosynthetic reaction centre proteins in an electrical circuit.

• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms7530
• 发表时间: 2015-03-09
• 期刊: Nature communications
• 影响因子: 16.6
• 作者: Kamran M;Friebe VM;Delgado JD;Aartsma TJ;Frese RN;Jones MR
• 通讯作者: Jones MR