Harvesting sunlight energy: a biophysics approach

Abstract

The most efficient light harvesting and energy transfer systems are found in nature as part of the photosynthesis process. In the photosynthetic system light energy is absorbed by antenna chlorophylls and this energy is then passed onto a reaction centre chlorophyll molecule where charge separation occurs in less than 100 ps and at about 95% efficiency. It has been shown that organised connective light harvesting complexes are required for long range energy transfer. By extracting these system fragments and maximising their organisational structure, similar artificial systems for energy sources and transfer system can potentially be developed. As a matrix to stabilize the system we are using a combination of fatty acids and nitrous oxide, rather than conventional phospholipid-based combinations, which enables the production of small, elastic artificial vesicles, called Pheroid™. Previous work has shown that photosynthetic light harvesting material can be incorporated into the Pheroid™. In this study we are characterising the level of organisation through protein aggregation on the incorporated light harvesting systems using absorption spectroscopy.