Enhanced Photocurrent Generation from Bacteriorhodopsin Photocells Using Grating-Structured Transparent Conductive Oxide Electrodes

We fabricated a grating-structured electrode made of indium-doped zinc oxide (IZO) with a high refractive index (approximately 2) for a bacteriorhodopsin (bR) photocell. We investigated the photocurrent characteristics of the bR photocell and demonstrated that the photocurrent values from the bR/IZO...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of nanoscience and nanotechnology Vol. 16; no. 4; p. 3206
Main Authors Kaji, Takahiro, Kasai, Katsuyuki, Haruyama, Yoshihiro, Yamada, Toshiki, Inoue, Shin-Ichiro, Tominari, Yukihiro, Ueda, Rieko, Terui, Toshifumi, Tanaka, Shukichi, Otomo, Akira
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.04.2016
Subjects
Bacteriorhodopsins - chemistry
Bacteriorhodopsins - radiation effects
Bioelectric Energy Sources
Conductometry - instrumentation
Electrodes
Energy Transfer
Equipment Design
Equipment Failure Analysis
Lenses
Light
Oxides - chemistry
Photometry - instrumentation
Refractometry - instrumentation
Online AccessGet more information

Cover

More Information
Summary:We fabricated a grating-structured electrode made of indium-doped zinc oxide (IZO) with a high refractive index (approximately 2) for a bacteriorhodopsin (bR) photocell. We investigated the photocurrent characteristics of the bR photocell and demonstrated that the photocurrent values from the bR/IZO electrode with the grating structure with a grating period of 340 nm were more than 3.5-4 times larger than those without the grating structure. The photocurrent enhancement was attributed to the resonance effect due to light coupling to the grating structure as well as the scattering effect based on the experimental results and analysis using the photonic band structure determined using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations. The refractive index of the bR film in electrolyte solution (1.40) used in the FDTD simulations was estimated by analyzing the extinction peak wavelength of 20-nm gold colloids in the bR film. Our results indicate that the grating- or photonic-crystal-structured transparent conductive oxide (TCO) electrodes can increase the light use efficiency of various bR devices such as artificial photosynthetic devices, solar cells, and light-sensing devices.
ISSN:1533-4880
DOI:10.1166/jnn.2016.12310