TY - JOUR A1 - Morlock, Sascha A1 - Subramanian, Senthil Kumar A1 - Zouni, Athina A1 - Lisdat, Fred T1 - Bio-inorganic hybrid structures for direct electron transfer to photosystem I in photobioelectrodes JF - Biosensors and Bioelectronics N2 - Synthetic materials can be combined with biological components in many ways. One example that provides scientists with multiple challenges is a photobioelectrode that converts sunlight into electrons in a biohybrid approach. In the present study several key parameters are evaluated concerning their influence on the direct electron transfer from a 3D indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode material to photosystem I (PSI) as a light-harvesting biomolecule. In contrast to previous investigations, no mediating molecule is added to shuttle the electrons to the luminal side of PSI. Thus, this setup is less complex than foregoing ones. The solution composition drastically influences the interaction of PSI with the ITO surface. Here, the application of higher buffer concentrations and the addition of salts are advantageous, whereas the nature of the buffer ions plays a minor role. The artificial electrode material's thickness is adjustable since a spin-coating procedure is used for preparation. With a 30 μm thick structure and immobilized PSI cathodic photocurrents up to 10.1 μA cm−2 are obtained at 100 mW cm−2 illumination intensity and an applied potential of −0.1V vs. Ag/AgCl. Over a period of three days the photobioelectrodes are illuminated for a total of 90 min and stored between the measurements at ambient temperature. The stability of the setup is noteworthy as still about 90% of the photocurrent is retained. The photocathode described here offers many positive features, including a high onset potential for the photocurrent starting sligthly above the redox potentail of P700, and applicability in a wide pH range from pH 5 to 8. Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:526-opus4-16770 SN - 1873-4235 VL - 204 PB - Elsevier ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Morlock, Sascha A1 - Subramanian, Senthil Kumar A1 - Zouni, Athina A1 - Lisdat, Fred T1 - Closing the green gap of photosystem I with synthetic fluorophores for enhanced photocurrent generation in photobiocathodes JF - Chemical Science N2 - One restriction for biohybrid photovoltaics is the limited conversion of green light by most natural photoactive components. The present study aims to fill the green gap of photosystem I (PSI) with covalently linked fluorophores, ATTO 590 and ATTO 532. Photobiocathodes are prepared by combining a 20 μm thick 3D indium tin oxide (ITO) structure with these constructs to enhance the photocurrent density compared to setups based on native PSI. To this end, two electron transfer mechanisms, with and without a mediator, are studied to evaluate differences in the behavior of the constructs. Wavelength-dependent measurements confirm the influence of the additional fluorophores on the photocurrent. The performance is significantly increased for all modifications compared to native PSI when cytochrome c is present as a redox-mediator. The photocurrent almost doubles from −32.5 to up to −60.9 μA cm−2. For mediator-less photobiocathodes, interestingly, drastic differences appear between the constructs made with various dyes. While the turnover frequency (TOF) is doubled to 10 e−/PSI/s for PSI-ATTO590 on the 3D ITO compared to the reference specimen, the photocurrents are slightly smaller since the PSI-ATTO590 coverage is low. In contrast, the PSI-ATTO532 construct performs exceptionally well. The TOF increases to 31 e−/PSI/s, and a photocurrent of −47.0 μA cm−2 is obtained. This current is a factor of 6 better than the reference made with native PSI in direct electron transfer mode and sets a new record for mediator-free photobioelectrodes combining 3D electrode structures and light-converting biocomponents. Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:526-opus4-17022 VL - 14 SP - 1696 EP - 1708 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Morlock, Sascha A1 - Subramanian, Senthil Kumar A1 - Zouni, Athina A1 - Lisdat, Fred T1 - Scalable Three-Dimensional Photobioelectrodes Made of Reduced Graphene Oxide Combined with Photosystem I JF - ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces N2 - Photobioelectrodes represent one of the examples where artificial materials are combined with biological entities to undertake semi-artificial photosynthesis. Here, an approach is described that uses reduced graphene oxide (rGO) as an electrode material. This classical 2D material is used to construct a three-dimensional structure by a template-based approach combined with a simple spin-coating process during preparation. Inspired by this novel material and photosystem I (PSI), a biophotovoltaic electrode is being designed and investigated. Both direct electron transfer to PSI and mediated electron transfer via cytochrome c from horse heart as redox protein can be confirmed. Electrode preparation and protein immobilization have been optimized. The performance can be upscaled by adjusting the thickness of the 3D electrode using different numbers of spin-coating steps during preparation. Thus, photocurrents up to ∼14 μA/cm2 are measured for 12 spin-coated layers of rGO corresponding to a turnover frequency of 30 e– PSI–1 s–1 and external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 0.07% at a thickness of about 15 μm. Operational stability has been analyzed for several days. Particularly, the performance at low illumination intensities is very promising (1.39 μA/cm2 at 0.1 mW/cm2 and −0.15 V vs Ag/AgCl; EQE 6.8%). KW - biophotovoltaics KW - reduced graphene oxide (rGO) KW - scalable template process KW - spin-coating KW - 3D electrode structure KW - carbon material Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:526-opus4-16760 VL - 13 IS - 9 SP - 11237 EP - 11246 PB - American Chemical Society (ACS) ER -