Co-assembly of photosystem II/reduced graphene oxide multilayered biohybrid films for enhanced photocurrent

Abstract

A new type of biohybrid photo-electrochemical cell was fabricated by layer-by-layer assembly of photosystem II and reduced graphene oxide. We demonstrate that the photocurrent in the direct electron transfer is enhanced about two fold with improved stability. The assembly strategy without any cross-linker or additional electron mediators makes the cell fabrication and operation much simpler as compared to previous approaches. This work may open new routes for the construction of solar energy conversion systems based on photoactive proteins and graphene materials.

Assembly of CdTe Quantum Dots and Photosystem II Multilayer Films with Enhanced Photocurrent

“…As shown in Figures 3c and 3d, the morphology of PAH/CdTe films acquired by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM) exhibits porous structure with pore size in the range of 100 nm to 2 μm, which favors the adsorption of PSII (300-800 nm). [11] To get biohybrid electrodes, PSII was directly added onto the above prepared electrodes with controlled areas. As shown in Figure S2, the morphologies of PSII-PAH/ CdTe composite films were found to be more flat compared to PAH/CdTe films.…”

“…Following our previous investigations on PSII based photoanodes constructed by layer-by-layer (LbL) technique, [11] herein, we report the facile construction of a biohybrid photoanode by integrating PSII with LbL assembled CdTe QDs films. The toxicity of QDs to PSII could be efficiently avoided by LbL assembly process.…”

“…RGO sheets act as both the electron acceptor and mediator, which improves the stability and photocurrent production of electrodes. [11] Gold nanoparticles, hematite nanorods and nanostructured indium tin oxide (ITO) were also applied for the integration with PSII. [12][13][14] Despite the above representative attempts, the performance of the PSII based PEC cells is still plagued by the low quantum efficiency of isolated PSII.…”

Interfacial Assembly of Photosystem II with Conducting Polymer Films toward Enhanced Photo‐Bioelectrochemical Cells

“…[1][2][3] Numerous artificial semiconductors [4][5][6] or dyes [7][8][9] have been applied in solar-to-electrical conversion and made great progress. [13][14][15][16][17][18][19] Notably, Reisner's group reported Adv. [10][11][12] Due to the excellent photocatalytic property, PSII is particularly suitable for integration in photobioelectrochemical devices.…”

“…[16] In addition, Badura and co-workers used Oscontaining polymer to entrap PSII onto gold electrode to produce sufficiently high photocurrent density. [19] Up to now, it is still a great challenge to develop simple approaches to assembling PSII with low-cost, porous, and conducting well-defined nanoplatforms for enhanced solar-to-electrical conversion. Very recently, our group constructed a superior photoanode with enhanced photocurrent through layer-by-layer coassembly of PSII and reduced graphene oxide.…”