Photosynthetic reaction center-based biophotovoltaics

Photosynthesis is the principal solar energy conversion process on Earth, but is low in overall efficiency due to numerous steps necessary to fix carbon. Tapping into the high-efficiency components which drive photosynthesis, known as reaction centers, offers a route to efficiently capture solar energy. This may be achieved by direct integration of reaction centers onto electrode materials in order to extract the high potential electrons and produce electricity or fuels. This review describes the various strategies and current benchmark configurations of Photosystem-I, Photosystem-II and bacterial reaction center-based biophotoelectrodes.