Issue 10, 2017

On the performance of a photosystem II reaction centre-based photocell

Abstract

The photosystem II reaction centre is the photosynthetic complex responsible for oxygen production on Earth. Its water splitting function is particularly favoured by the formation of a stable charge separated state via a pathway that starts at an accessory chlorophyll. Here we envision a photovoltaic device that places one of these complexes between electrodes and investigate how the mean current and its fluctuations depend on the microscopic interactions underlying charge separation in the pathway considered. Our results indicate that coupling to well resolved vibrational modes does not necessarily offer an advantage in terms of power output but can lead to photo-currents with suppressed noise levels characterizing a multi-step ordered transport process. Besides giving insight into the suitability of these complexes for molecular-scale photovoltaics, our work suggests a new possible biological function for the vibrational environment of photosynthetic reaction centres, namely, to reduce the intrinsic current noise for regulatory processes.

Graphical abstract: On the performance of a photosystem II reaction centre-based photocell

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
07 Jul 2017
Accepted
04 Aug 2017
First published
04 Aug 2017
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2017,8, 6871-6880

On the performance of a photosystem II reaction centre-based photocell

R. Stones, H. Hossein-Nejad, R. van Grondelle and A. Olaya-Castro, Chem. Sci., 2017, 8, 6871 DOI: 10.1039/C7SC02983G

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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