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Deep sea bacteria might be able to boost solar PV efficiency

Light harvesting proteins in green sulphur bacteria are the subject of a new Cambridge University study attempting to find ways of boosting solar PV efficiency
Deep sea bacteria might be able to boost solar PV efficiency

Some biological systems thriving in low light environments possess unique proteins that use quantum dynamics to convert absorbed light into electrical charge. Studying these proteins could lead to a new understanding of renewable solar energy according to research findings published recently in the journal Nature Physics.

The research is looking at quantum wave-like properties that transport energy during the early stages of photosynthesis. Cambridge University researchers have found a mechanism in pigment-protein complexes (PPC’s) that helps to protect energy from dissipating while travelling through the bacterium. It does this by reversing the flow part of the escaped energy and reenergising it through molecular vibrations.

“Once the detailed structure of the protein vibrations was included in our simulations, we found that the energy of the excitons does not just continually decrease as they are funnelled towards their final position – something you might expect in the complex thermal conditions found in biological systems,” said Dr Alex Chin, from the university’s Winton Programme for the the Physics of Sustainability. “In fact, our research suggests that these natural PPCs can achieve ‘hot and fast’ energy transfer – energy flows that prevent complete cooling to the temperature of their surroundings – which has been proposed as a way of improving solar cell efficiency beyond limits currently imposed by thermodynamics.”

The scientists are suggesting that the light-harvesting capacity of these proteins results from intricate processes of energy transport that are not known to ‘classical’ physics and fall more into the realm of quantum physics, particularly that of ‘quantum coherence’. Some of the key issues in solar cell technologies appear to have been solved by the molecular structure of these PPC’s according to Chin. Stabilising quantum coherence, particularly at ambient temperatures, is something that will become an important goal for quantum-based technologies including advanced solar cells, quantum computers and nanotechnology.

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Cambridge University

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