et a l., "Integration of Photosynthetic Protein Molecular Complexes in Solid-State Electronic Devices

Plants and photosynthetic bacteria contain protein−molecular complexes that harvest photons with nearly optimum quantum yield and an expected power conversion efficiency exceeding 20%. In this work, we demonstrate the integration of electrically active photosynthetic protein− molecular complexes in solid-state devices, realizing photodetectors and photovoltaic cells with internal quantum efficiencies of approximately 12%. Electronic integration of devices is achieved by self-assembling an oriented monolayer of photosynthetic complexes, stabilizing them with surfactant peptides, and then coating them with a protective organic semiconductor. Photosynthetic complexes are archetypal molecular electronic devices, containing molecular optical and electronic circuitry organized by a protein scaffold. Conventional technology cannot equal the density of the molecular circuitry found in photosynthetic complexes.1 Thus, if integrated with solid-state electronics, photosynthetic complexes might offer an attractive architecture for future generations of circuitry where molecular components are organized by a macromo-lecular scaffold. But like other protein molecular complexes