Biological Solar Cells

see also PhotoSynthesis

• Light absorbed by chlorophyll: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_reaction

bio-solar cells

• http://whyfiles.org/shorties/photosyn.html
• http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:Mimicking_Living_Organisms
• http://sciencematters.berkeley.edu/archives/volume3/issue21/story3.php

Using plants so generate electricity - Biological photovoltaics

• http://news.uns.purdue.edu/UNS/html4ever/010620.Ladisch.NRCenergy.html

"Melvin Calvin won the Nobel Prize for his work in photosynthesis, discovered that plant chlorophyll under the influence of sunlight could give up electrons to a semiconductor such as zinc oxide. Calvin and his associates made a "green photoelement," which actually produced a 0.1 microampere per square cm current. The addition of hydroquinone to the salt solution was necessary to extend the plant's life. But the chlorophyll seemed to act as an electron pump passing electrons from the hydroquinone to the semiconductor. Calvin further calculated that a chlorophyll photoelement with an area of 10 square meters could produce a kilowatt of power."

• from: http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/newton/askasci/1993/chem/CHEM007.HTM

spinach power

Could laptops run on spinach?

A protein complex named Photosystem I, which is derived from spinach chloroplasts, functions as an extremely small electronic circuit. About 100,000 of them would fit on the head of a pin.

• http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2004/spinach-0915.html

" US researchers have made electrical cells that are powered by plant proteins.

The biologically based solar cells, which convert light into electrical energy, should be efficient and cheap to manufacture, says co-creator Marc Baldo of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They could even be used to coat and power laptops, providing a portable source of green energy.

Baldo's team isolated a variety of photosynthetic proteins from spinach and sandwiched them between two layers of conducting material. When light was shone on to the tiny cell, an electrical current was generated. Their discovery is reported in Nano Letters1.

The proteins come from the chloroplasts of spinach leaves; tiny structures that help plants convert light into energy. As the reaction proceeds, electrons move around and create electrical currents."

• Text from: http://www.bioedonline.org/news/news.cfm?art=1034

-- RachelWingfield - 22 Jun 2006
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