posted on 2023-08-30, 03:03authored byYuval Agam, Nadav Amdursky
Light-harvesting is at the heart of photocurrent generation
devices,
and it is also one of the most important natural phenomena of which
photosynthesis is an example. Inspired by natural light-harvesting
complexes, we present here a synthetic and artificial solid-state
protein-based matrix that is molecularly doped with natural light-harvesting
chlorophyll molecules. Such protein matrices are capable of photocurrent
generation over a wide range of wavelengths in a source–drain
configuration. We show that the photocurrent generation shows a switchable
(flipping) behavior when (1) the magnitude of the applied bias is
changed, (2) the location of the irradiated area is changed with respect
to the electrodes, and (3) a gradient doping, enabled by the facile
molecular doping approach, is formed. Finally, the synthetic artificial
nature of the protein matrix allows the exploration of several light-harvesting
cofactors not used in natural systems, where we further show photocurrent
generation by doped, metal-free porphyrins.