Researchers at Chalmers have found an effective solution for collecting sunlight for artificial photosynthesis.
By combining self-assembling DNA molecules with simple dye molecules, the researchers have created a system that resembles nature’s own antenna system.
Artificial photosynthesis is one of the hot trends in energy research. A large number of the worlds’ energy problems could be resolved if it were possible to recreate the ability plants have to transform solar energy into fuel. The Earth receives enough solar energy every hour to satisfy our energy needs for an entire year.
A research team at Chalmers University of Technology has made a nanotechnological breakthrough in the first step required for artificial photosynthesis. The team has demonstrated that it is possible to use self-assembling DNA molecules as scaffolding to create artificial systems that collect light. The results were recently published in the esteemed scientific Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Self-assembling system
Scaffolding in plants and algae consists of a large number of proteins that organise chlorophyll molecules to ensure effective light collection. The system is complicated and would basically be impossible to construct artificially.
“It’s all over if a bond breaks,” says Jonas Hannestad, PhD of physical chemistry. “If DNA is used instead to organise the light-collecting molecules, the same precision is not achieved but a dynamic self-constructing system arises.”
Recreates a part of nature’s miracle
With a system that builds itself, the researchers have begun to approach nature’s method. If any of the light-collecting molecules break, it will be replaced with another one a second later. In this sense, it is a self-repairing system as opposed to if molecules had been put there by researchers with synthetic organic chemistry.
The sun’s light is moved to a reaction centre in plants and algae so they can synthesise sugars and other energy-rich molecules.
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