On the performance of a photosystem II reaction centre-based photocell

The photosystem II reaction centre is the photosynthetic complex responsible for oxygen production on Earth. Its water splitting function is particularly favoured by the formation of a stable charge separated state a pathway that starts at an accessory chlorophyll. Here we envision a photovoltaic de...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Chemical science (Cambridge) 2017-10, Vol.8 (10), p.6871-6880
Main Authors: Stones, Richard, Hossein-Nejad, Hoda, van Grondelle, Rienk, Olaya-Castro, Alexandra
Format: Article
Language:English
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The photosystem II reaction centre is the photosynthetic complex responsible for oxygen production on Earth. Its water splitting function is particularly favoured by the formation of a stable charge separated state a pathway that starts at an accessory chlorophyll. Here we envision a photovoltaic device that places one of these complexes between electrodes and investigate how the mean current and its fluctuations depend on the microscopic interactions underlying charge separation in the pathway considered. Our results indicate that coupling to well resolved vibrational modes does not necessarily offer an advantage in terms of power output but can lead to photo-currents with suppressed noise levels characterizing a multi-step ordered transport process. Besides giving insight into the suitability of these complexes for molecular-scale photovoltaics, our work suggests a new possible biological function for the vibrational environment of photosynthetic reaction centres, namely, to reduce the intrinsic current noise for regulatory processes.
ISSN:2041-6520
2041-6539
DOI:10.1039/c7sc02983g