Photosynthetic Bio-solar Cells: Electricity from Plants and Photosynthetic Algal Cells

Natural photosynthesis is the cleanest energy conversion process by which solar energy is converted to electricity with high efficiency. A team led by Prof. WonHyoung Ryu in Department of Mechanical Engineering has been investigating engineering methods to directly extract photosynthetic electrons (PEs) from living plant cells, algal cells, and isolated photosynthetic membranes or apparatus. The team has developed nanoscale electrodes (NEs) to penetrate cell membrane and directly extract PEs from living algal cells, including a cantilever NE system for single cell analysis (Nano Res. 2018), vertically-aligned NE array for multiple cells insertion (Adv. Funct. Mater. 2016), or highly-dense NE arrays for cell film insertion (Biosens. Bioelectrons. 2018). Recently, the team started using thylakoid membranes (TMs) isolated from spinach leaves to construct photosynthetic anodes for enhanced PE extraction using various nanomaterials using CNTs, metallic nanoparticles, graphene oxides. Currently, as an effort to develop the technology to practical systems, the team also started building photosynthetic bio-solar cells with an aim to power small ICT sensors.