Development of 3D-Printed Graphene Biophotovoltaic System for Photosynthetic Electrons from Cyanobacteria

Development of 3D-Printed Graphene Biophotovoltaic System for Photosynthetic Electrons from Cyanobacteria

Professor WonHyoung Ryu’s research team in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Yonsei University (first author: Jinwook Moon), in international collaboration with Dr. Artur Braun’s research team at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), developed a 3D-printed graphene-based biophotovoltaic system capable of efficiently harvesting photosynthetically generated electrons from cyanobacteria. The research team coated 3D-printed reduced graphene oxide electrodes with the conductive polymer polypyrrole to enhance the cyanobacteria–electrode interface and optimized the electrode architecture, achieving approximately four times higher photocurrent than conventional 2D electrodes. The study further demonstrated high photocurrent generation without the use of exogenous electron-transfer mediators. The results were published on August 16, 2026, in the international journal EcoMat (Impact Factor: 11.3).

The link: https://doi.org/10.1002/eom2.70093