Biomaterials Interfaces for Photoactive Proteins

光活性蛋白质的生物材料界面

• 批准号: 1507505
• 负责人: David Cliffel
• 金额: $ 36万
• 依托单位: Vanderbilt University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-08-01 至 2019-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1507505&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Biomaterials; Interfaces; Photoactive; Proteins

Non-Technical:This award to Vanderbilt and Tennessee State Universities will explore fundamental advances in the integration of proteins into devices to speed the development of biohybrid solar cells for the generation of affordable, renewable power. A team of two chemists, and a chemical engineer will collaborate in this project to develop nature-inspired solar cells that use proteins from green plants as the photo-active elements. The protein complexes Photosystem I (PSI) and Photosystem II (PSII) drive photosynthesis in plants and are highly efficient solar converters. Members of this team have experience in integrating PSI and PSII films with electrode surfaces to design and construct photoelectrochemical cells with photocurrents that have improved by a factor of nearly 106 over the past five years and are now within an order of magnitude of many mature technologies. This research project will address key fundamental biomaterials issues to greatly enhance the performance of photosystem-based solar cells. The research team for this project will build on their strong track record of integrating research with education at Vanderbilt and Tennessee State University, an HBCU, by promoting the interdisciplinary education of graduate and undergraduate researchers in engineering and chemistry through research experiences and interdisciplinary coursework. An established outreach program to include students from under-represented groups through Fisk and Tennessee State HBCUs is combined with K-12 classroom outreach in the Vanderbilt Summer Academy and Vanderbilt Student Volunteers for Science.Technical:In this project, the team from Vanderbilt and Tennessee State will develop a biomimetic approach to orient PSI on electrode surfaces, explore new ways of interfacing these proteins with conductive materials to facilitate electron flow to/from the proteins, and promote band energy alignment with the goal to achieve another quantum leap in biohybrid solar energy conversion. First, PSI orientation at electrode surfaces will be greatly enhanced by selectively modifying the exposed stromal face of PSI within the thylakoid membrane with surface-active ligands before releasing the modified protein for directed assembly onto surfaces. Achieving uniform orientations of these biomolecular photodiodes without the reliance on expensive and slow alternative methods would greatly advance biohybrid performance. Second, the conductivity within PSI films will be promoted by wiring reduced graphene oxide, redox polymers, and semiconductor nanoparticles to the active PSI sites. These oriented and more conductive PSI films will be interfaced with two types of electrode systems in both wet and solid-state systems. Building from the group's recent success, PSI films will be interfaced with semiconductors with appropriate energy levels to guide electron flow unidirectionally through the circuit. In addition, an all-carbon-based solar cell in which PSI films are sandwiched between oppositely doped, atomically thin graphene sheets to yield "stacked" architectures with only slight impedance of incoming light will be designed, fabricated, and optimized. These advances will also be applied to the interfacing and photoelectrochemistry of PSII onto substrate electrodes. The PIs will create outreach components and kits for building and demonstrating these devices in the middle school and high school settings.

非技术性：授予范德比尔特和田纳西州立大学的奖项将探讨将蛋白质整合到设备中的基本进步，以加快生物杂交太阳能电池的开发，以生成负担得起的可再生能力。 由两名化学家组成的团队和化学工程师将在该项目中合作开发自然风格的太阳能电池，这些太阳能电池使用绿色植物的蛋白质作为光活性元素。 蛋白质复合物将光系统I（PSI）和光系统II（PSII）驱动植物中的光合作用，并且是高效的太阳能转换器。该团队的成员具有将PSI和PSII膜与电极表面整合在一起的经验，以设计和构建光电流的光电化学细胞，这些光电在过去五年中已提高了近106倍，现在在许多成熟技术的数量级内。 该研究项目将解决关键的基本生物材料问题，以极大地提高基于光系统的太阳能电池的性能。该项目的研究团队将以他们在HBCU的教育和田纳西州立大学的教育融合的良好往绩，通过通过研究经验和跨学科课程来促进工程和化学研究生的跨学科教育。 一项既定的宣传计划，包括通过Fisk和田纳西州HBCU的学生包括来自代表性不足的群体的学生，并在Vanderbilt Summer Academy和Vanderbilt的Science for Science中与K-12课堂外展结合了科学的志愿者。导电材料以促进从蛋白质流动/从蛋白质流动，并促进带能量对齐的目标，以实现生物杂化太阳能转化的另一个量子飞跃。 首先，通过选择性地修改诸如表面膜内PSI的裸露的基质面孔，并在囊性膜中使用表面活性配体进行选择性修饰，从而大大增强了电极表面的PSI方向。 实现这些生物分子光电二极管的统一取向，而无需依赖昂贵和缓慢的替代方法，这将大大提高生物杂化性能。 其次，通过将氧化石墨烯，氧化还原聚合物和半导体纳米颗粒接线到活性PSI位点，PSI膜内的电导率将促进。 这些定向和更有导电的PSI膜将与湿态和固态系统中的两种类型的电极系统连接。 PSI膜从该集团最近的成功中建立，将与具有适当能级的半导体连接，以通过电路单向引导电子流。 此外，将PSI膜夹在相对掺杂的原子薄石墨烯片之间的全碳基太阳能电池中，将设计，制造和优化，以产生“堆叠”的体系结构，仅设计，制造和优化。 这些进步还将应用于PSII的接口和光电化学上，上面的电极。 PI将创建用于在中学和高中环境中建造和演示这些设备的外展组件和套件。