Engineering of photosynthesis proteins and attachment to electrodes for conversion of solar light to electrical power

植物和光合细菌以令人难以置信的高效率收集光，并将光能转化为化学势能。我们能从自然的方法中受益以产生电力吗？这个建议是采取跨学科的方法来解决这个问题。这些方法依赖于基因工程和生化分离技术，以及设备建模和制造技术。新的光合作用蛋白质变体的创造和生化方法的发展，结合建模和制造技术，使人们有机会研究和利用天然蛋白质不可思议的太阳能到电能的转换能力。具体的实验将利用蛋白质自然地收集光能，并将这种能量转化为电子流。在光合作用中，这种电子流会立即被活细胞中的其他蛋白质利用来进行化学反应。在我们的工作中，我们将从细胞中去除蛋白质，这样光驱动的电子流就会被转移到一个制造的电极上，进入一个电路，在那里它可以用来为设备供电。其他人的工作已经证明了这种方法的可行性，但电流和电压比理论上可能的要小得多。在我们的方法中，电子从蛋白质到电极的有效转移将通过使用基因工程蛋白质来增强，其表面性质以几何和化学精确的方式改变。使用这些改变的蛋白质的最终结果将是电子供体（蛋白质）与受体（电极）的方向更加接近和均匀，因此大大改善了电流。

Plants and photosynthetic bacteria harvest light with incredibly high efficiencies and convert light energy to chemical potential energy. Can we benefit from nature's methods in order to generate electrical power? This proposal is to take an interdisciplinary approach to this question. The methods rely on genetic engineering and biochemical separation techniques, along with device modeling and fabrication techniques.The creation of new photosynthesis protein variants and development of biochemical methods, in combination with the modeling and fabrication skills has resulted in an opportunity to investigate and exploit the incredible solar to electrical energy conversion capabilities of naturally occurring proteins.The specific experiments will utilize proteins that naturally harvest light energy and convert this energy to a flow of electrons. In photosynthesis, this electron flow is immediately tapped in chemical reactions by other proteins in a living cell. In our work we will remove the proteins from the cell, such that the light-driven electron flow is diverted to a fabricated electrode and enters an electrical circuit, where it can be used to power devices. Work by others has shown the feasibility of this approach but currents and voltages have been much smaller than is theoretically possible. In our approach the efficient transfer of electrons from the protein to the electrode will be enhanced by using genetically engineered proteins, whose surface properties are changed in geometrically and chemically precise ways. The net result of using these altered proteins will be much closer and uniform orientation of the electron donor (the protein) to the acceptor (the electrode), and hence greatly improved electrical current.