SOLAR ENERGY HARVESTING WITH PHOTOSYNTHETIC PIGMENT-PROTEIN COMPLEXES

Abstract

Photosynthesis, a process by which plants and algae convert solar energy, water, and carbon dioxide into biomass, is a key player that sustains nearly every form of life on earth. Central to this process are the photosynthetic pigment-protein complexes that transduce sunlight into biologically useful forms of energy through a photochemical charge separation that has a quantum efficiency close to 100%. Integrating these natural pigment-protein complexes in bio-hybrid architectures for solar energy harvesting is attractive due to their global abundance and environmental compatibility. Despite the ability of the protein complexes to achieve near-unity quantum efficiency in their native environments, achieving a similar performance by integrating them in device environments, without losing their integrity, has been challenging. In this thesis, photosynthetic bio-hybrid devices of different architectures are presented with new approaches to achieve enhanced photocurrent and photovoltage generation from the natural pigment-protein complexes.