Photosynthetic apparatus of Rhodobacter sphaeroides exhibits prolonged charge storage

Sai Kishore Ravi, Piper Rawding, Abdelnaby M. Elshahawy, Kevin Huang, Wanxin Sun, Fangfang Zhao, John Wang, Michael R. Jones and Swee Ching Tan ()
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Sai Kishore Ravi: National University of Singapore
Piper Rawding: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Abdelnaby M. Elshahawy: National University of Singapore
Kevin Huang: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Wanxin Sun: Bruker Nano Surface Division
Fangfang Zhao: Bruker Nano Surface Division
John Wang: National University of Singapore
Michael R. Jones: University of Bristol, Biomedical Sciences Building, University Walk
Swee Ching Tan: National University of Singapore

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Photosynthetic proteins have been extensively researched for solar energy harvesting. Though the light-harvesting and charge-separation functions of these proteins have been studied in depth, their potential as charge storage systems has not been investigated to the best of our knowledge. Here, we report prolonged storage of electrical charge in multilayers of photoproteins isolated from Rhodobacter sphaeroides. Direct evidence for charge build-up within protein multilayers upon photoexcitation and external injection is obtained by Kelvin-probe and scanning-capacitance microscopies. Use of these proteins is key to realizing a ‘self-charging biophotonic device’ that not only harvests light and photo-generates charges but also stores them. In strong correlation with the microscopic evidence, the phenomenon of prolonged charge storage is also observed in primitive power cells constructed from the purple bacterial photoproteins. The proof-of-concept power cells generated a photovoltage as high as 0.45 V, and stored charge effectively for tens of minutes with a capacitance ranging from 0.1 to 0.2 F m−2.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-08817-7

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