Next-Generation Solar Cells Inspired by Photosynthesis

Innovation: Academia

Penn State

2019

Image: David Clode / Unsplash / CC BY SA - Creative Commons Attribution + ShareAlike

Capture, Absorb, or Filter Energy

Energy is naturally available in many forms, including kinetic, potential, thermal, elastic, radiant, chemical, and more. All living systems require energy to carry out their many activities, and have developed strategies appropriate to one or more of those forms. For example, some plants maximize their surface area available for capturing radiant energy from the sun while others have strategies to focus scattered light onto photosynthesizing areas.

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Transform Chemical Energy

Life’s chemistry runs on the transformation of energy stored in chemical bonds. For example, glucose is a major energy storage molecule in living systems because the oxidative breakdown of glucose into carbon dioxide and water releases energy. Animals, fungi, and bacteria store up to 30,000 units of glucose in a single unit of glycogen, a 3-D structured molecule with branching chains of glucose molecules emanating from a protein core. When energy is needed for metabolic processes, glucose molecules are detached and oxidized.

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Solar cells from Penn State contain photosensitive molecules that use fluorescence resonance energy transfer to increase the efficiency of the energy generation.

Benefits

Reduced costs
Efficient
Sustainable

Applications

Commercial and residential energy generation

UN Sustainable Development Goals Addressed

Goal 7: Affordable & Clean Energy

Bioutilization

Protein bacteriorhodopsin

The Challenge

When solar cells convert sunlight into electricity they do not do so with one hundred percent efficiency. While solar cells absorb light, some of the loss in efficiency is due to the panels’ also reflecting light. Inefficiencies such as this are compounded in large-scale solar farms.

Innovation Details

The solar cells are perovskite-type solar cells that contain the bacteriorhodopsin (bR). The addition of the bR protein enhances the use of the Förster (fluorescence) resonance energy transfer (FRET). FRET is a mechanism for energy transfer between a pair of photosensitive molecules. The bR protein and the perovskite material have similar electrical properties and are able to absorb light energy to create electricity. Adding the bR protein improved the device’s efficiency from 14.5 to 17 percent.

Biomimicry Story

Photosynthesis is essential for life on Earth. It is the process by which plants produce energy and oxygen using just sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide.

See Related Strategy

Biological Strategy

Photosynthesis Converts Solar Energy Into Chemical Energy

Plants

By absorbing the sun’s blue and red light, chlorophyll loses electrons, which become mobile forms of chemical energy that power plant growth.

References

Journal article

Bacteriorhodopsin Enhances Efficiency of Perovskite Solar Cells

ACS Publications

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