Light-Harvesting Antenna, New Solar Cell Technology Concept, Inspired By Nature

From EarthTechling's Kristy Hessman:

Plants and trees make use of the sun's power everyday to create energy through processes like photosynthesis. Biologists at the Washington University in St. Louis' Photosynthetic Antenna Research Center (PARC) are taking a cue from nature to try to replicate that in the form of a solar cell.

Tree leaves and pond scum use light energy to push electrons across a membrane, ultimately creating sugars and other organic molecules. The researchers are studying those proteins and pigments to replicate them in the design kind of natural solar cell.

And it looks like they've succeeded. One group of researchers has made a light-harvesting antenna modeled on the chlorosome found in green bacteria. Chlorosomes are giant assemblies of pigment molecules. They allow green bacteria to photosynthesize even in the dim light in ocean deeps. The research is detailed in the latest edition of the New Journal of Chemistry.

Now, the team is working toward seeing if they can make a practical solar device from their findings. "We're not trying to make a more efficient solar cell in the next six months," Dewey Holten, PhD, professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, said in a statement. "Our goal instead is to develop fundamental understanding so that we can enable the next generation of more efficient solar powered devices."

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Comments

[Frank-Landfield]

09:20 PM on 12/17/2011

Very cool!
:-)

[UKLLee]

12:04 PM on 12/16/2011

Does anybody here have any idea how inefficient plants are at converting sunlight to energy?

[doriath22]

09:00 PM on 12/16/2011

As opposed to?

[yer]

10:53 AM on 12/18/2011

Does anybody here have any idea how to use Wikipedia? Are you kidding me?

[Roshi98]

10:41 AM on 12/16/2011

Biomimicry is definitely the way to go in terms of maximizing the efficiency and capacity of technology. Up front it's certainly a much greater technical challenge, but let's face it, nature has been doing this a lot longer than we have, so it should be our best instructor. And, yes, conservatives, it WILL cost money and there WILL be failures. Progress's foundation is based on what we learn from failure, not from the fruits of success.

[pyrroho]

04:14 PM on 12/16/2011

somewhat true. problem with biomimicry is that it is normally optimizing for multiple parameters rather than the single one that may be of interest. it is not always simple to split out which thing to copy.

other issue is it unlike human ingenuity is limited by its preceding states in the evolutionary process. biological systems do not switch paths or jump curves.

[doriath22]

08:59 PM on 12/16/2011

But great strides ARE being made with reengineering viruses and bacteria for specific purposes. This is an avenue of research that has jaw-dropping potential to change many technologies

[lilpeg]

08:49 AM on 12/16/2011

What about just growing some plants?

[spilkus]

11:56 AM on 12/16/2011

Good question. We can't put these brains that we have back into Pandora's box. Nature provides the best model for us to live by, so we need to learn from the plant world how to meet our energy needs. We are going to do both-- plant plants, and imitate how they make energy. Its not either or.

[lilpeg]

09:46 AM on 12/17/2011

My understanding is that the end product that is needed for any alternative energy source is electricity. The question is, how to get plants to provide it in an efficient way;

[GreenEmployLtd]

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