Hybrid photoconverters from molecular fluorophores and photosynthetic bacteria

Angela Agostiano^a, Gianluca Farinola^a, Alessandra Operamolla^a, Rocco Roberto Tangorra^a, Roberta Ragni^a, Simona La Gatta^a, Massimo Trotta^b, Francesco Milano^b

^aUniversità degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, Dipartimento di Chimica, via Orabona, 4, Bari, 70126, Italy

^bCNR IPCF – UOS Bari, Via Orabona, 4, 70126 Bari, Italy

International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
Proceedings of International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics 2015 (HOPV15)

Roma, Italy, 2015 May 11th - 13th

Organizer: Filippo De Angelis

Oral, Gianluca Farinola, presentation 272
Publication date: 5th February 2015

Artificial photosynthetic systems capable of harvesting solar light for energy production and photocatalysis have attracted considerable interest over the last years. As a possible approach to such functional architectures we propose combination of tailored molecular antennas for effective and tuneable light harvesting with biological photoconverters optimized by billion years of evolution. We present the synthesis of hybrid bio-organic photoconverters by covalent functionalization of the Reaction Center (RC) photoenzyme from the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides R26 with tailored molecular fluorophores (figure). The organic fluorophore acts as the antenna to enhance the light harvesting capability of the RC in a wavelength range where the unmodified biological enzyme does not absorb¹. Various dyes have been synthesized with bis-thiophene benzothiadiazole or bis-thiophene thiazoloquinoxaline core and have been covalently bound to selected positions of the RC photoenzyme. We have also demonstrated selective functionalization for anchoring the photoenzyme on graphene or embedding it into membranes, aiming to integrate the photoactive units into photoelectrodes and electronic devices. Our study shows that it is possible to design and synthesize organic-biological hybrid photosynthetic assemblies for solar energy conversion. The resulting bio-hybrids outperform the native photoenzyme in light harvesting and conversion ability. New concepts for the generation of materials for sunlight photoconversion can be envisaged.

[1] F. Milano, R.R. Tangorra, O. Hassan Omar, R. Ragni, A. Operamolla, A. Agostiano, G.M. Farinola, M. Trotta Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012,51, 11019-11023.

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