New Artificial Photosynthetic System to harvest solar energy...

Need of the hour is to minimise world's carbon emissions and being a responsible and most trustworthy country, India has done commitment to the world to curb carbon emissions by 50-70%. 

To make the promise firm, our researchers and scientists are searching other ways also to harness solar energy rather than using silicone based appliances and thus reducing E-waste menace too. Now IISER and IIT researchers have developed a new artificial light harvesting that can efficiently capture light for power conversion by mimicking photosynthesis.

According to officials, scientists across the globe are trying to replicate the light-harvesting step of photosynthesis in engineered systems for use in solar cells or artificial leaves.

Actually phenomenon is the light harvesting cores in plants and other photosynthetic bacteria are chromophores, molecules that absorb visible light and pass it on to other components which is used for several chemical reactions. The top-most chromophores that are exposed to the sun absorb the energy.

Array of chromophores passes the energy to the adjoining one and keeps on continuing. There is a rapid cascade of energy until the energy reaches its destination.

 *Technology used* 

Polymeric structures, detergent-type molecules, vesicles, gels, and other bio-inspired structures have been used to mimic photosynthesis. 

 *Difficulties faced* 

The most common problem faced by such molecules is that the light is quenched due to aggregation or bunching up of the molecules together. This leads to poor light capture and conversion efficiencies.

Ever first time, we have utilised an atom-precise nanocluster in such an application. The opposite charges on the surfaces and the matched electronic energy distribution result in a 93 per cent energy transfer efficiency with a mammoth antenna effect from the UV-to-visible region of the light spectrum.” 

The researchers also revealed that this harvested energy could generate current with much enhanced yields compared to the single single components.

This fundamental investigation into highly-efficient energy transfer systems will provide the basis for designing new light-harvesting materials that can enhance the efficiency of solar cells and reduce energy loss.