Review
Biohybrid solar cells: Fundamentals, progress, and challenges

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jphotochemrev.2018.04.001Get rights and content

Highlights

  • •

    Review contemporary condition of the non-conventional solar cell based on the photosynthetic complexes.

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    Photobioelectrochemical cell can be called a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC), where photosynthetic complexes serve as dyes.

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    Only for TiO2-based photobioelectrochemical cells, milliampere-range photocurrent output is obtained.

Abstract

Over the last two decades many reports have been published on diverse types of biohybrid electrodes utilizing components of the photosynthetic apparatus. Currently, the development of such devices does not extend beyond laboratory research. In the future, these electrodes could be used in biosensors, solar cells, and as a new technique to investigate photosynthetic pigment-protein complexes. Efficiency of light-to-current conversion is particularly important for solar cell applications. Selection of a suitable substrate for special pigment-protein complexes is a significant challenge for building an inexpensive and efficient device. Various combinations of pigment-protein complexes and substrates, as well as different measurement conditions make it difficult to directly compare performance of various solar cells. However, it has been shown, that one of the possible substrate materials, namely nanostructured TiO2, is the most preferred material for the immobilization of pigment-protein complexes in terms of both cost and efficiency. The photocurrent values reaching several mA, were reported for TiO2-based biohybrid electrodes. However, the efficiency of TiO2-based biohybrid is still far from its potential maximum value due to fundamental challenges related to designing an optimum interface between TiO2 nanostructure and pigment-protein complexes containing electron transferring cofactors. To date, counterproductive back reactions, also referred to as charge recombination, still dominate and lower internal quantum efficiency of these systems.

Introduction

Worldwide energy consumption is slowly but steadily growing due to the growth in the world’s population, increased utilization of power-consuming devices, and the rising demand of energy in developing countries [1], [2]. Since fossil fuels remain the dominant energy source, increasing energy consumption will bring with it greater ecological problems regarding increased greenhouse gas emissions and depletion of a finite non-renewable resources. Therefore, one of the greatest problems facing the global community today is to replace inevitably diminishing fossil fuels with renewable sources of ecofriendly energy production [1]. The Earth receives almost 120 000 TW of solar energy, a value that greatly exceeds our current global demand of ∼17 TW [1], [2], [3]. Thus, the research and development of novel devices for the conversion of photonic energy from sun light to electricity is a very attractive direction of contemporary research into alternative energy technologies. These devices are called solar or photovoltaic cells.

Currently it is customary to classify solar cells into the three generations [4], [5]. The first generation consists of conventional wafer-based cells containing crystalline silicon. The second generation includes thin film solar cells composed of amorphous silicon, cadmium telluride and copper indium gallium selenide. The third emerging generation employs various architectures such as organic photovoltaics (OPV), dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC), and quantum dot solar cells. Each solar cell type has efficiency limits, design advantages and resource limitations. Collectively, current technologies have several drawbacks such as: inherently high energy input requirements, natural and geopolitical resource limitation, and environmental toxicity of certain components used in fabrication. Due to these obstacles, many researchers have begun to explore more natural strategies, such as the process of solar energy conversion via chlorophyll based photosynthesis [1].

Photosynthesis is arguably the most important natural process in existence, transforming our once lifeless planet into a living world. While primitive photosynthetic bacteria such as purple and green sulfur bacteria perform anoxygenic photosynthesis (producing elemental sulfur from hydrogen sulfide with the help of sunlight), cyanobacteria, algae and plants carry out oxygenic photosynthesis to convert water and carbon dioxide to sugars and release oxygen as a by-product [6]. Light-induced charge separation and subsequent electron transfer precede the synthesis of the energy storage molecules resulting from photosynthesis [7], [8]. Recently, focus has centered around the investigation of solar energy capture technologies based on natural photosynthesis, because the internal quantum efficiency of this charge separation event approaches 100%.

Section snippets

Brief history of photovoltaics

Photovoltaic refers to solar energy utilization by the direct conversion of light energy to electricity [9], [10]. The first reports of the photovoltaic effect appeared in the middle of the 19th century, in an investigation using an electrolytic cell by Alexandre Becquerel. This cell consisted of two platinum electrodes immersed in the acid solution with silver chloride, which when illuminated generated a photocurrent [11]. In the first half of the twentieth century, breakthrough works were

Dye-sensitized solar cell

Dye-sensitized solar cells have recently attracted much interest as a promising energy harvesting technology. This is in part due to low-cost of fabrication, integration into a thin film format, high efficiency under low-light conditions, earth abundant composition and absorption over the visible light spectrum [11], [17], [18], [19]. The most important feature of DSSCs is the use of mesoscopic semiconductor (most commonly TiO2) layer that has a very large effective surface area. This expansion

Photosynthesis

Photosynthesis is the major solar energy capture and storage process on Earth. Through storage as energy dense fossil fuels, photosynthesis provides nearly all energy resources to humanity [50], [51], [52], [53]. Current progress in agriculture and bioenergy is largely due to ongoing research into phototrophic organisms [16], [54]. Researchers have achieved meaningful and corroborative results using in vitro systems to mimic the natural processes of photosynthesis that occurs in vivo. They

Basic principles

The ETC is a principal component of the photosynthetic apparatus. An initial point of the electron transport in the photosynthetic membrane is the charge separation event in the RC stimulated by light energy. This separation has a very large quantum yield due to the highly complex, precisely ordered system of pigments and cofactors arranged within the reaction center and adjacent antennae complex. This effectively represents a ready-made nanomachine, built to convert light energy into

TiO2-based solar cell

The most actively investigated substrate for photo bioelectrode building is nanostructured titanium dioxide. TiO2 is biocompatible, can easily chelate the COOH groups and its bond strength is enhanced by its porous structure (the contact surface of TiO2/protein is larger in nanostructured titanium dioxide than in a flat plate) [119]. The TiO2 industry is rapidly expanding due to the success of DSSCs. There are many different kinds of TiO2 nanostructures being developed [17]. This growth

Conclusions

At this time, the Z-scheme and PSI-based biohybrid electrodes show more favorable results than those based on PSII complexes and bacterial RCs (Table 2). One can conclude, that type II RCs are not as well suited for immobilization onto TiO2, at least without the presence of type I RCs. This is due to the energy discrepancy between the redox potential of quinones in the acceptor side of type II RCs and the conduction band of TiO2 (Fig. 8A) [104], [126]. Further, certain cofactors of PSII locate

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts to declare.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Grant 14-14-00039 from the Russian Science Foundation, and in particular by grant from RFBR-Azerbaijan according to the joint research project no. 18-54-06017. Support to B.D.B., N.B. and J.M. has been provided from the Gibson Family Foundation, the Tennessee Plant Research Center, and the Dr. Donald L. Akers Faculty Enrichment Fellowship. N.B. was also supported by the Penley Foundation Fellowship Award. This work was also supported by the National Science

Elshan Musazade graduated from Baku State University in 2016. He is now a M.Sc. student in the Bionanotechnology Laboratory at the Institute of Molecular Biology & Biotechnologies, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS). Under the supervision of Prof. Suleyman Allakhverdiev, he is working at the solar cell based on photosynthetic apparatus.

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    Elshan Musazade graduated from Baku State University in 2016. He is now a M.Sc. student in the Bionanotechnology Laboratory at the Institute of Molecular Biology & Biotechnologies, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS). Under the supervision of Prof. Suleyman Allakhverdiev, he is working at the solar cell based on photosynthetic apparatus.

    Roman Voloshin graduated from Moscow State University, Faculty of Physics majoring in Biophysical Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Alexander N. Tikhonov in 2014. He is now a PhD student at the Institute of Plant Physiology, the Controlled Photobiosynthesis Laboratory at majoring in Biophysics, under the supervision of Prof. Suleyman Allakhverdiev he is working at the designing, investigation and characterization of the solar cells based on the components of photosynthetic apparatus.

    Nathan Brady obtained his bachelor's degree the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in environmental and analytical chemistry. He is now a PhD student in the department of Biochemistry and Cellular & Molecular Biology at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. In the laboratory of Dr. B. D. Bruce, he is investigating the effect of the native environment of the thylakoid membrane on the biophysical activity of PSI protein for applications in biohybrid solar devices.

    Jyotirmoy Mondal has an honors degree in Microbiology from the Inst. Genetic Engineering, Kolkata, India under Dr. Bondhopadhya and a MS degree in Molecular Biology from the Hyderabad Central Univ., Hyderabad, from Profs. S. Tetali & S. Rajagopal. Currently, he is a PhD candidate in Biochemistry, Cellular & Molecular Biology Dept. at Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, under the supervision of Prof. B. D. Bruce. His dissertation is on understanding and enhancing the surface interaction of photosystem I (PSI) and ferredoxin (Fd) in order to incorporate the PSI:Fd complexes in a bio-hybrid solar cell devices

    Samaya Atashova graduated from Baku State University in 2016. She obtained her master professional degree majoring in Molecular Biology having defended her master thesis “Molecular docking studies of inhibition of bacterial beta-glucuronidase by synthetic and natural compounds”. She is a PhD student now at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology under the supervision of Prof. Suleyman Allakhverdiev. Her research interests relate to Photosystem I type Solar batteries which is created in nanobiotechnological way.

    Sergey K. Zharmukhamedov is a senior researcher at the Institute of Basic Biological Problems, RAS, Pushchino, Russia. He defended PhD thesis in Biology on the subject “Revealing and investigation of the mechanism of action of new chemical inhibitors of electron transfer in photosystem II of plants” (1993, Pushchino). He graduated from Kazakhstan State University, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics (1983). The field of interests: biophysics and biochemistry of photosynthesis (mechanism of inhibitory action of herbicides and stress factors).

    Prof. İrada Huseynova is currently Director of Institute of Molecular Biology & Biotechnologies, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS), as well as a Head of the Department of Fundamental Problems of Biological Productivity. She received her PhD degree in molecular biology in 1994, and Doctor of Biological Sciences degree in Biochemistry in 2004 under the supervision of Prоf. Jalal Aliyev at the Institute of Botany, ANAS. She is also a Professor at the Department of Biophysics and Molecular Biology of Baku State University. Her research interests relate to the study of molecular-genetic mechanisms of synthesis, assembly and formation of pigment-protein complexes of photosynthetic membrane in higher plants as well as molecular bases of the defense-adaptive processes of plants to abiotic (drought, salinity, radiation) and biotic (virus, phytoplasma, rust) stress factors.

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    Prof. Jian-Ren Shen received his bachelor's degree in Biology from Zhejiang Agricultural University (now Zhejiang University) in China in 1982 and gained his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Tokyo in 1990. He spent 13 years in RIKEN (The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research) in Japan with the group of Yorinao Inoue studying the structure and function of photosystem II (PSII), and moved to Okayama University as a Professor in 2003, where he is now the Vice Dean of the Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Science. Dr. Shen solved the atomic resolution structure of PSII in 2011 with his colleagues, providing the first atomic structure of the catalyst for water-oxidation, the Mn4CaO5-cluster. Dr. Shen and his group further solved the damage-free structure of PSII using femtosecond X-ray free electron lasers (XFEL) in 2015, and then solved the S3-state intermediate state structure in 2017, which provided critical information for understanding the mechanism of photosynthetic water-oxidation.

    Prof. Barry Bruce received his PhD from Univ. Cal. Berkeley in Molecular Plant Biology. He has a MS in Biochemistry under Robert Blankenship from Univ. Mass. He is a Professor in the Departments of BCMB, Microbiology, and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He is a AAAS Fellow and a leader in chloroplast biology, photosynthesis, and a pioneer in the development of Applied Photosynthesis. He was recognized by Forbes as one of the “Ten Revolutionaries That May Change The World”.

    Prof. Suleyman I. Allakhverdiev is the Head of the Controlled Photobiosynthesis Laboratory at the Institute of Plant Physiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Moscow; Chief Research Scientist at the Institute of Basic Biological Problems RAS, Pushchino, Moscow Region; Professor at the M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow; Professor at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (State University), Moscow, Russia; Head of Bionanotechnology Laboratory at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, Baku, Azerbaijan, and Invited-Adjunct Professor at the Department of New Biology, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology (DGIST), Daegu, Republic of Korea. He obtained both his B.S. and M.S. in Physics from the Department of Physics, Azerbaijan State University, Baku. He obtained his Dr.Sci. degree in Plant Physiology and Photobiochemistry from the Institute of Plant Physiology, RAS (2002, Moscow), and PhD in Physics and Mathematics (Biophysics), from the Institute of Biophysics, USSR (1984, Pushchino). He is associate editor of the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (Elsevier), section editor of the BBA Bioenergetics (Elsevier), associate editor of the Photosynthesis Research (Springer), associate editor of the Functional Plant Biology (CSIRO), and associate editor of the Photosynthetica (Springer) and member of the Editorial Board of more than fifteen international journals. He also acts as a referee for major international journals and grant proposals. He has authored (or co-authored) more than 400 research papers, six patents and eight books. In 2016 he has been recognized by Thomson Reuters (Clarivate Analytics) the most highly cited Russian researcher worldwide in Biology. He has organized more than ten international conferences on photosynthesis. His research interests include the structure and function of photosystem II, water oxidizing complex, artificial photosynthesis, hydrogen photoproduction, catalytic conversion of solar energy, plants under environmental stress, and photoreceptor signaling.

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