Kamran Muhammad, Delgado Juan D, Friebe Vincent, Aartsma Thijs J, Frese Raoul N
Leiden Institute of Physics, Leiden University , Niels Bohrweg 2, 2333CA Leiden, The Netherlands.
Biomacromolecules. 2014 Aug 11;15(8):2833-8. doi: 10.1021/bm500585s. Epub 2014 Jul 8.
Photosynthetic compounds have been a paradigm for biosolar cells and biosensors and for application in photovoltaic and photocatalytic devices. However, the interconnection of proteins and protein complexes with electrodes, in terms of electronic contact, structure, alignment and orientation, remains a challenge. Here we report on a deposition method that relies on the self-organizing properties of these biological protein complexes to produce a densely packed monolayer by using Langmuir-Blodgett technology. The monolayer is deposited onto a gold electrode with defined orientation and produces the highest light-induced photocurrents per protein complex to date, 45 μA/cm(2) (with illumination power of 23 mW/cm(2) at 880 nm), under ambient conditions. Our work shows for the first time that a significant portion of the intrinsic quantum efficiency of primary photosynthesis can be retained outside the biological cell, leading to an internal quantum efficiency (absorbed photon to electron injected into the electrode) of the metal electrode-protein complex system of 32%.
光合化合物一直是生物太阳能电池和生物传感器以及用于光伏和光催化器件应用的典范。然而，就电子接触、结构、排列和取向而言，蛋白质与蛋白质复合物与电极的互连仍然是一个挑战。在此，我们报告一种沉积方法，该方法依靠这些生物蛋白质复合物的自组装特性，通过使用朗缪尔-布洛杰特技术来制备紧密堆积的单分子层。该单分子层以确定的取向沉积在金电极上，并且在环境条件下，产生了迄今为止每个蛋白质复合物最高的光诱导光电流，即45 μA/cm²（在880 nm处光照功率为23 mW/cm²）。我们的工作首次表明，初级光合作用的很大一部分本征量子效率能够在生物细胞外得以保留，从而使金属电极-蛋白质复合物系统的内量子效率（吸收光子到注入电极的电子）达到32%。
