Photovoltaic Properties of Fungal Melanin

Abstract

The films of fungal melanin (FM) were fabricated from solution, and also optical and photovoltaic properties of the films and heterostructures with other semiconductors were studied. Color and absorption spectra of studied FM were like in eumelanin. Photovoltage of ITO/FM structures under illumination of the free surface side is 2-3 orders of magnitude lower than in the films of phthalocyanines and polyacenes. The photovoltage of double layer heterostructures of FM with C 60 , SnCl 2 phthalocyanine, sulfonamide zinc phthalocyanine, lead phthalocyanine, pentacene is lower than one in the ITO/FM structures under illumination through the free surface and in organic semiconductor films.

Ferroelectric-like behaviour of melanin: Humidity effect on current-voltage characteristics

“…Ukraine) [38,15]. The absorbance, luminescence and photovoltaic properties of the fungal melanin were characterized elsewhere [15].…”

“…Ukraine) [38,15]. The absorbance, luminescence and photovoltaic properties of the fungal melanin were characterized elsewhere [15]. The melanin powder was dissolved in distilled water at the concentration of 10 mg/ml (1 w/w%), and thin films were obtained by drop casting of water solution on the substrates with In:Sn oxide, ITO, electrodes.…”

“…The interest for melanin extracted from fungi, plants, animal and human pigments, synthetic melanin and melanin-like materials [9] is connected with their promising applications in photo-and other types of protection [11,12], neuro-functionality [1,13], free radical scavenging (in particular, biosensing) [1], and solution of melanoma problem [2]. Melanins including fungal one are widely discussed in terms of prospects for photovoltaic applications [14][15][16][17], including development of donoracceptor compositions of melanin with other compounds [18]. During the decades of research history of melanin (from 1960s [19,20]) a multitude of intense studies in the areas of biology [1,2,12,13,19], chemistry [19,21,22] and physics [5-9, 15-18, 20-30] was performed.…”

Nonmonotonic (in concentration) conductivity of aqueous solutions of fungal melanin

“…Modern electronics increasingly focuses on the use of organic materials and, in particular, materials of biological origin. Melanin can be one of these materials [1][2][3][4].…”

“…Our analysis of publications [1][2][3][4][5][6] has shown that the features of possible ordering in aqueous solutions of melanin clarified on the basis of electrical conductivity measurements were not previously studied in detail. Therefore, the purpose of this work was to deepen the study of conductivity inherent to aqueous solutions of melanin of biological origin with varying its purity and ionic composition of water.…”