Potential of light-harvesting of bacteriorhodopsin co-sensitized with green fluorescence protein: a new insight into bioenergy application.

Abstract Herein we report for the first time on efficient and environmentally friendly bioenergy production from bacteriorhodopsin (bR) and green florescent protein (GFP) as co-sensitizers. bR as a transmembrane protein, acts like a light-driven proton pump in Halobacterium salinarum, converting light energy into a proton gradient. Employing GFP beside bR can enhance the photo-bioenergy production efficiency in two aspects: GFP can increase short circuit current by improvement in light absorption either by extending the sensitizingspectrumor making fluorescence in absorption region of bR. It can also enhance open circuit voltage more than 150 mV by improvement in photoelectrode converging and extending electron lifetime in photoelectrode. Maximum photovoltage of 680 mV and photocurrent of 1.2 mA cm−2 have been achieved upon co-sensitization with bR/GFP. With the power conversion efficiency of 0.45%, the highest efficiency of photovoltaic cell based on bR has been reported in this research.

[1]  R. Mohammadpour,et al.  Efficient Nanostructured Biophotovoltaic Cell Based on Bacteriorhodopsin as Biophotosensitizer , 2015 .

[2]  Q. Luo,et al.  Monitoring of dual bio-molecular events using FRET biosensors based on mTagBFP/sfGFP and mVenus/mKOκ fluorescent protein pairs. , 2013, Biosensors & bioelectronics.

[3]  Elaheh Sadat Hosseini,et al.  Bio-nano hybrid materials based on bacteriorhodopsin: Potential applications and future strategies. , 2015, Advances in colloid and interface science.

[4]  W. Lee,et al.  Bioelectronic device consisting of self-assembled biomolecules , 2002 .

[5]  K. Yung,et al.  Assessments of the effects of nicotine and ketamine using tyrosine hydroxylase-green fluorescent protein transgenic zebrafish as biosensors. , 2013, Biosensors & bioelectronics.

[6]  O. Shimomura,et al.  Extraction, purification and properties of aequorin, a bioluminescent protein from the luminous hydromedusan, Aequorea. , 1962, Journal of cellular and comparative physiology.

[7]  R. Dubey,et al.  Biosorptive behaviour of casein for Zn2+, Hg2+ and Cr3+: effects of physico-chemical treatments , 1998 .

[8]  S. Bettati,et al.  Structure and single crystal spectroscopy of Green Fluorescent Proteins. , 2011, Biochimica et biophysica acta.

[9]  Nageh K. Allam,et al.  Bacteriorhodopsin/TiO2 nanotube arrays hybrid system for enhanced photoelectrochemical water splitting , 2011 .

[10]  D. Oesterhelt,et al.  Isolation of the cell membrane of Halobacterium halobium and its fractionation into red and purple membrane. , 1974, Methods in enzymology.

[11]  Ahmad Molaeirad,et al.  Oriented assembly of bacteriorhodopsin on ZnO nanostructured electrode for enhanced photocurrent generation , 2015, Biotechnology and applied biochemistry.

[12]  UV excited-state photoresponse of biochromophore negative ions. , 2014, Angewandte Chemie.

[13]  R. Mohammadpour,et al.  Light harvesting and photocurrent generation by nanostructured photoelectrodes sensitized with a photosynthetic pigment: a new application for microalgae. , 2014, Bioresource technology.

[14]  Taeyoung Lee,et al.  Fluorescent proteins as biosensors by quenching resonance energy transfer from endogenous tryptophan: detection of nitroaromatic explosives. , 2013, Biosensors & bioelectronics.

[15]  Ahmad Molaeirad,et al.  Photocurrent generation by adsorption of two main pigments of Halobacterium salinarum on TiO2 nanostructured electrode , 2015, Biotechnology and applied biochemistry.

[16]  Ahmad Molaeirad,et al.  Efficient Bio-Nano Hybrid Solar Cells via Purple Membrane as Sensitizer , 2014 .

[17]  M. J. Cormier,et al.  Primary structure of the Aequorea victoria green-fluorescent protein. , 1992, Gene.

[18]  Seeram Ramakrishna,et al.  Study on the feasibility of bacteriorhodopsin as bio-photosensitizer in excitonic solar cell: a first report. , 2009, Journal of nanoscience and nanotechnology.