Unravelling the bioenergetics of photosynthesis at multiple length and time scales

光合作用是太阳能进入生物圈的主要途径，也是我们食物和能量的主要来源。这个重要的过程由光子吸收、光-电荷转换、电荷转移和键转换步骤的几个组合组成，每个步骤的发生时间从皮秒到小时不等。促进这一过程的是无数的纳米机器，它们动态地协同工作或级联工作，以收集阳光并将其转化为生物质的键。最近，电化学连接光合作用机器，整个电子传递链，甚至活细胞群落，成为可能，电化学连接到电极。这种将不同长度尺度（从纳米机械到微米大小的细胞）的光合作用（重新）连接到电极上，使我们能够以令人兴奋和前所未有的方式研究、控制和利用光合作用。这个项目旨在开发新的方法来理解光合作用的生物能量学，这样我们就可以更有效地提高它的定制目的。这涉及到新型光谱电化学和成像技术的发展，用于在大范围的长度和时间尺度（从纳米-微米到秒-天）上探测光合作用的生物能量。实现这一目标将填补长期存在的技术空白，使光合作用能够被全面理解，并加速依赖光合作用的技术的进步。

Photosynthesis is the dominant route by which solar energy enters the biosphere, and is our primary source of food and energy. This important process is composed of several combinations of photon-absorption, light-to-charge conversion, charge transfer and bond transformation steps, each can take from pico-seconds to hours to occur. Facilitating this are a myriad of nano-machineries that work dynamically in concert or in cascades to harvest and convert sunlight into the bonds of biomass. It has recently become possible to electrochemically connect photosynthetic machineries, entire electron transport chains and even communities of living cells, electrochemically to electrodes. Such (re-)wiring of photosynthesis at different length scales (from nano-machineries to micron-sized cells) to electrodes is allowing us to study, control and exploit photosynthesis in exciting and unprecedented ways. This project aims to develop new methods of understanding the bioenergetics of photosynthesis so that we can more effectively enhance it for bespoke purposes. This involves the development of novel spectro-electrochemistry and imaging techniques for probing the bioenergetics of photosynthesis at a wide range of length and time scales (from nm-micro m and ps-days). Achieving this will fill long-standing technological gaps, enable photosynthesis to be understood wholistically, and accelerate the progress of technologies that rely on photosynthesis.