IIT and IISER Researchers Create New Synthetic Photosynthetic System

A new artificial light-harvesting system has been created by researchers from IISER-Thiruvananthapuram and IIT-Indore. This system efficiently harvests light for power conversion by simulating photosynthesis, the process by which plants absorb sunlight and make sugars.

The study was released in the renowned “Royal Chemical Society – Chemical Science” publication. Officials claim that researchers from all over the world are working to design devices that can perform photosynthesis’ light-harvesting stage similarly to natural leaves or artificial leaves.

According to Professor Biswarup Pathak of the Department of Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Indore, “Chromophores, molecules that absorb visible light and transmit it to other components that use the energy for various chemical reactions, are the light-harvesting cores in plants and other photosynthetic bacteria. Energy is absorbed by the top-most chromophores that are in contact with the sun.

“The chromophores are grouped in arrays, and when one is excited, it transfers its energy to the one next to it, and so on. Up until the energy reaches its objective, it cascades quickly.” The light-harvesting mechanism’s molecular and atomic structure has been replicated in the lab many times. To imitate photosynthesis, polymeric structures, detergent-like molecules, vesicles, gels, and other bio-inspired structures have been used, according to Pathak.

The researchers also demonstrated that this energy could be gathered and used to generate current with significantly higher yields than the sum of its parts. It will be possible to build new light-harvesting materials that can improve solar cell performance and decrease energy loss based on this fundamental research into extremely effective energy transfer systems.

Of course, the big question will be if this can move from lab to market, a continuous challenge for innovations in the solar space.

This is crucial since India plans to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2070 and meet 50% of its electricity demands from renewable sources by 2030, according to Mandal.