Two-dimensional protein crystals for solar energy conversion.

Saboe, Patrick O; Lubner, Carolyn E; McCool, Nicholas S; Vargas-Barbosa, Nella M; Yan, Hengjing; Chan, Stanley; Ferlez, Bryan; Bazan, Guillermo C et al. · Adv Mater · 2014

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Two-dimensional photosynthetic protein crystals provide a high density of aligned reaction centers. We reconstitute the robust light harvesting protein Photosystem I into a 2D crystal with lipids and integrate the crystals into a photo-electrochemical device. A 4-fold photocurrent enhancement is measured by incorporating conjugated oligoelectrolytes to form a supporting conductive bilayer in the device which produces a high photocurrent of ∼600 μA per mg PSI deposited.

Medical subject headings