The application of photosynthetic materials and architectures to solar cells

Publisher Summary This chapter focusses on the application of photosynthetic materials and architectures to solar cells. Photosynthetic materials and structures deserve investigation because of the promise of harnessing the high efficiency of photosynthesis. Device performance of initial demonstrations of solid-state solar cells with integrated photosynthetic proteins is limited by an inability to absorb enough incident light. The local environment of the solid state is drastically different to that of the aqueous solution, where proteins usually preside. Because the structural stability and hence, functionality of proteins hinge on local environment, it is necessary to inquire whether the harsh environment of solid matter is too destructive for proteins to withstand. Plants survive this damage through an energetically costly and complicated repair process of degradation, resynthesis, and replacement. Separation of the functions of light absorption and exciton dissociation constitutes a significant photosynthetic redesign, unaccompanied by the limitations of traditional organic PV. Finally, the excellent absorption characteristics of chlorosomes and charge-separation characteristics of RCs are tempting, the trade-off between performance and stability may dictate the type of devices that yield high performance and reliability.