Emerging Role of the Band‐Structure Approach in Biohybrid Photovoltaics: A Path Beyond Bioelectrochemistry

Ravi, Sai Kishore; Udayagiri, Vishnu Saran; Suresh, L. Padma; Tan, Swee Ching

doi:10.1002/adfm.201705305

Cited by 55 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 143 publications

(259 reference statements)

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“…It is now well established that photosynthetic proteins can be used as solar energy converting materials in photoelectrochemical cells. [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] One often quoted advantage of using such proteins in light-powered or light-sensing devices is their inherently environmentally-benign character, being fabricated in living organisms from common elements and being subject to degradation and chemical recycling through natural processes. However, in order to realise a photoelectrochemical device these photosynthetic proteins have to be combined with synthetic electrolyte and electrode components that may either present physical or chemical problems to end-of-life disposal or contain elements that are relatively expensive or scarce.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biodegradable Protein-Based Photoelectrochemical Cells with Biopolymer Composite Electrodes That Enable Recovery of Valuable Metals

Suresh

Vaghasiya

Jones

et al. 2019

ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng.

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The development of new technologies that use sunlight as an energy source is adding to pressure on finite natural resources and the challenges of recycling and disposal. Looking to nature for material assistance, we describe a proof-of-concept flexible and biodegradable photoelectrochemical cell based almost entirely on pigments, proteins, polysaccharides and graphene platelets. In addition to being largely environmentally benign, such devices present opportunities for the recovery of valuable components such as, in the present case, the geologically-scarce metal indium and the precious metal gold. Recovery is achieved through dissolution in ethanol followed by physical separation of the heavy element, leaving a residue made up from common elements that can be recycled through natural biodegradation. Potential applications for flexible, biomolecule-based photoelectrochemical cells are considered.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biodegradable Protein-Based Photoelectrochemical Cells with Biopolymer Composite Electrodes That Enable Recovery of Valuable Metals

Suresh

Vaghasiya

Jones

et al. 2019

ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng.

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“…More poignantly, over one billion people in face of water crisis are forced to consume water that is contaminated with human waste. [3][4][5][6][7] The prospects of low-cost water desalination have been brightened by the www.advsustainsys.com [2] Solar energy, being a carbon-free and profuse energy source, has found stupendous applications in various eco-friendly and cost-effective energy technologies developing in the recent times.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[2] Solar energy, being a carbon-free and profuse energy source, has found stupendous applications in various eco-friendly and cost-effective energy technologies developing in the recent times. [3][4][5][6][7] The prospects of low-cost water desalination have been brightened by the www.advsustainsys.com…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systematic Study of the Effects of System Geometry and Ambient Conditions on Solar Steam Generation for Evaporation Optimization

Zhang

Ravi

Tan

2019

Advanced Sustainable Systems

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growing use of solar energy in steam generation techniques. [8][9][10] Steam generation is a crucial energy-intensive step in seawater desalination, which is typically followed by water vapor condensation to collect the desalinated water. By wielding interfacial evaporator to localize solar heat and boil sea water, steam (clean water) can be produced at a significantly higher rate than naturally ubiquitous evaporation process without the support of solar absorbers. [1,11,12] Of late, with a wide variety of new solar-absorber materials mushrooming, the solar desalination approach has begun to bear fruit. [13][14][15][16][17][18] To maximize the evaporation rate (ER) which is a key performance metric of solar steam generators, enormous efforts are underway, primarily focused on enhancing the light absorption, heat management, and water transport. [1,19] However, current studies often overlook the impacts from environment and the system itself. The understanding of the system-ambience interplay is still lacking in this area. Those neglectful factors, such as humidity that broadly changes with place and time, may be capable of manipulating the solar evaporation process. However, quite opposite to the common notion that the relative humidity (RH) affects ER, recent reports have confirmed that the solar evaporation is still able to maintain a high rate even when the RH greatly increases, [20,21] but understanding of how the evaporation can be sustained under such high humidity is still inadequate. [22] It is therefore more pressing to systematically study how the various system/ambient factors influence the evaporation process than to engineer a new solar absorber material, which sums up the motive of this work.This work shines light on the roles of relative humidity level of the ambience/system, waterlogged surface level, specific weight, carbonization thickness, and water salinity in influencing the water evaporation in a solar steam generation system, where microchanneled balsa wood was employed as an ideal research model for quantitative comparisons. Focusing on the system geometry and ambient conditions, the study aims to uncover the insights of the interplay between solar steam generation and practical operating environment, and provide constructive strategies for performance optimization of solar steam generators without any further sophisticated modifications on materials or system design. Solar steam generation as an emerging solar desalination technology has drawn tremendous research attention owing to its enticing prospects in tackling the rising water crisis across the globe. Despite the numerous reports on materials with high evaporation rates, little is known about how the system geometry and ambient conditions impact the evaporation rate. The ambient relative humidity (RH), which can potentially impact on the evaporation process in the system is one such element that is not well studied. In this work, microchanneled balsa wood is employed as the research model in the quantitative investigations of these ...

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“…[4] In particular, much of the progress in this field has been driven by bioinspiration with nature's photosynthetic (PS) apparatus as a model material. [10][11][12][13][14] The "biomimetic solar cell," an application long sought after, aims to mimic the architecture of nature's reaction center (RC) and light-harvesting (LH) complexes in a fully artificial photosynthetic device for direct "solar electricity" generation. [10][11][12][13][14] The "biomimetic solar cell," an application long sought after, aims to mimic the architecture of nature's reaction center (RC) and light-harvesting (LH) complexes in a fully artificial photosynthetic device for direct "solar electricity" generation.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[5][6][7] The aim of exploiting nature's designs for the harnessing of solar energy has attracted considerable efforts in the areas of artificial photosynthesis, [8,9] bio-photovoltaics and bio-electrochemical cells. [10][11][12][13][14] The "biomimetic solar cell," an application long sought after, aims to mimic the architecture of nature's reaction center (RC) and light-harvesting (LH) complexes in a fully artificial photosynthetic device for direct "solar electricity" generation. [15] Although the basic design principle of a dye-sensitized solar cell comes closer to this idea, [16] it is undeniably far from having any structural similarity with photosynthetic proteins, and developing supramolecular solar cells with artificial RCs [17] or other protein mimics has been extremely challenging.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical Shading Induces an In‐Plane Potential Gradient in a Semiartificial Photosynthetic System Bringing Photoelectric Synergy

Ravi

Zhang

Wang

et al. 2019

Advanced Energy Materials

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and are believed to be key to sustainably overcoming the terawatt energy challenge the world currently faces. [1][2][3] The field of solar energy harvesting, previously dominated by inorganic materials, has in recent times witnessed the rapid ascent of organic materials in device designs. [4] In particular, much of the progress in this field has been driven by bioinspiration with nature's photosynthetic (PS) apparatus as a model material. [5][6][7] The aim of exploiting nature's designs for the harnessing of solar energy has attracted considerable efforts in the areas of artificial photosynthesis, [8,9] bio-photovoltaics and bio-electrochemical cells. [10][11][12][13][14] The "biomimetic solar cell," an application long sought after, aims to mimic the architecture of nature's reaction center (RC) and light-harvesting (LH) complexes in a fully artificial photosynthetic device for direct "solar electricity" generation. [15] Although the basic design principle of a dye-sensitized solar cell comes closer to this idea, [16] it is undeniably far from having any structural similarity with photosynthetic proteins, and developing supramolecular solar cells with artificial RCs [17] or other protein mimics has been extremely challenging. [18] Alongside the development of artificial photosynthetic systems, there have also been attempts to directly employ natural photosynthetic materials such as bacterial cells, [19][20][21] pigment proteins, [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] and membranes [30,31] as photoactive components for both direct electricity generation and fuel molecule synthesis.While, on the one hand, fully artificial photosynthetic systems lack the nanoscale architectural sophistication found in natural photosystems, on the other hand, natural photosystems are not always sufficiently robust or efficient outside their native environments. These and other factors limit the performance of a device employing solely natural or artificial materials as the photoactive component. [32] Bridging the two approaches, the idea of semiartificial photosynthetic systems is now gaining attention as it offers advantages over purely artificial or biological systems. [32,33] The concept has already shown signs of success in fuel generation by photo-electrochemical water splitting. [34,35] Direct electric current generation has also been studied in a wide variety of biohybrid devices, combining different photosynthetic microorganisms [19,20,36] and Semiartificial photosynthetic systems have opened up new avenues for harvesting solar energy using natural photosynthetic materials in combination with synthetic components. This work reports a new, semiartificial system for solar energy conversion that synergistically combines photoreactions in a purple bacterial photosynthetic membrane with those in three types of transition metal-semiconductor Schottky junctions. A transparent film of a common transition metal interfaced with an n-doped silicon semiconductor exhibits an in-plane potential gradient when a light-penetration variance is esta...

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Emerging Role of the Band‐Structure Approach in Biohybrid Photovoltaics: A Path Beyond Bioelectrochemistry

Cited by 55 publications

References 143 publications

Biodegradable Protein-Based Photoelectrochemical Cells with Biopolymer Composite Electrodes That Enable Recovery of Valuable Metals

Biodegradable Protein-Based Photoelectrochemical Cells with Biopolymer Composite Electrodes That Enable Recovery of Valuable Metals

Systematic Study of the Effects of System Geometry and Ambient Conditions on Solar Steam Generation for Evaporation Optimization

Optical Shading Induces an In‐Plane Potential Gradient in a Semiartificial Photosynthetic System Bringing Photoelectric Synergy

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