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Applications of ZnO Nanowires as Electrode Materials in Photosynthetic Bio-Photoelectrochemical Cells

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2015

Houman Yaghoubi ,
Anand Kumar Santhanakrishn ,
Md Khan ,
J. Thomas Beatty  and
Arash Takshi
Houman Yaghoubi
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, U.S.A.
Anand Kumar Santhanakrishn
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, U.S.A.
Md Khan
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, U.S.A.
J. Thomas Beatty
Affiliation:
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada.
Arash Takshi
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, U.S.A.
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Abstract

Harvesting solar energy, is only one of the incentives of incorporating photosynthetic proteins in electrochemical devices. Understanding the interface of photosynthetic protein complexes and organic\inorganic underlying electrodes can give rise to development of new generation of nano-bioelectronics for other applications such as sensing, as well. Previous approaches in fabricating photosynthetic bio-hybrid electrochemical solar cells were mainly based on metallic electrodes with protein complexes attached, either directly or through linker molecules. Due to the energy band structure in semiconductors, they potentially can be useful for selective charge transfer in an electrochemical device. In the current study, a two terminal sealed bio-hybrid solar cell device was fabricated comprising of hydrothermally grown ZnO nanowires on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) glass working electrode, a Pt counter electrode, and methyl viologen (MV) as a single diffusible redox mediator. The ZnO working electrode was initially characterized using scanning electron microscopy (XRD) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). A solution of dimeric Rhodobacter sphaeroides – light harvesting 1 (RC-LH1) core complexes and redox electrolyte was injected into the cavity between working and counter electrodes. Such structure resulted in ∼0.64 µA.cm-2 photocurrent density and ∼0.24 V open circuit potential difference in the dark and under illumination. Additionally, the device stability tests demonstrated that the current response of such devices remained unchanged after 33 hours storage in the dark.

Keywords

biomaterialenergy generationphotovoltaic
Type
Articles
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1772: Symposium F – Biohybrid Solar Cells―Photosynthesis-Based Photovoltaics and Photocatalytic Solar Cells , 2015 , pp. 1 - 6
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2015 

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