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New Delhi: Scientists from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Indore and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Thiruvananthapuram have created a new artificial system that can effectively catch light for power conversion.
The researchers at IIT Indore examined and created a new artificial light-harvesting system that can effectively catch light for power conversion by simulating photosynthesis, the process by which plants absorb sunlight and make sugars, according to the official announcement.
The light-harvesting mechanism's molecular and atomic composition has been the subject of numerous lab replication attempts. To simulate photosynthesis, scientists have used polymeric structures, detergent-like compounds, vesicles, gels, and other bio-inspired structures, according to the institute.
The light is suppressed by the molecules' tendency to aggregate or bunch up together, which is the most frequent issue these molecules encounter. Poor light capture and conversion efficiencies result from this.
synthetic photosynthesis-based systems
The quenching issues with artificial light absorbers and transmitters have been solved by experts from IISER TVM and IIT Indore. They have worked with silver clusters that are a hundred thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair, or nanometers in size. These nanoclusters exhibit unusual photophysical characteristics and interesting structures. The complete ensemble was contained inside another big molecule called cyclodextrin after the researchers stabilised these nanoclusters with bulky ligands, it claimed.
Sukhendu Mandal, an associate professor in the department of chemistry at IISER TVM, described the structure of their atomically exact molecule as follows: "The molecule we generated is a 16 silver atoms-ligand-cyclodextrin assembly that functions as a donor and -carotene as an acceptor. This is the first application in which we have used an atom-precise nanocluster.
The lead researcher provided further explanation, stating that "the opposing charges on the surfaces and the matched electrical energy distribution result in a 93% energy transfer efficiency with a great antenna effect from the UV-to-visible part of the light spectrum." Additionally, the researchers demonstrated that this energy may generate current with far higher yields than the sum of its parts.
The researchers from IISER TVM and IIT Indore believe that this fundamental study into extremely effective energy transfer systems will serve as the foundation for developing novel light-harvesting materials that can improve solar cells' efficiency and lower energy loss. Given that India wants to have net zero carbon emissions by the year 2070 and to generate 50% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030, such solar power, this is significant.
The Royal Chemical Society's journal Chemical Science has published the study's findings. Sukhendu Mandal, an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry, along with his research assistants Sourav Biswas and Anish Kumar Das, and Biswarup Pathak, a professor in the Department of Chemistry at IIT Indore, as well as this research assistant Surya Sekhar Manna, are co-authors of the paper.
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