Enhanced energy transport in genetically engineered excitonic networks

Heechul Park; Nimrod Heldman; Patrick Rebentrost; Luigi Abbondanza; Alessandro Iagatti; Andrea Alessi; Barbara Patrizi; Mario Salvalaggio; Laura Bussotti; Masoud Mohseni; Filippo Caruso; Hannah C Johnsen; Roberto Fusco; Paolo Foggi; Petra F Scudo; Seth Lloyd; Angela M Belcher

doi:10.1038/nmat4448

Enhanced energy transport in genetically engineered excitonic networks

Nat Mater. 2016 Feb;15(2):211-6. doi: 10.1038/nmat4448. Epub 2015 Oct 12.

Authors

Heechul Park^{1

2}, Nimrod Heldman^{1

2

3}, Patrick Rebentrost⁴, Luigi Abbondanza⁵, Alessandro Iagatti^{6

7}, Andrea Alessi⁵, Barbara Patrizi⁶, Mario Salvalaggio⁵, Laura Bussotti⁶, Masoud Mohseni⁴, Filippo Caruso^{6

8}, Hannah C Johnsen³, Roberto Fusco⁵, Paolo Foggi^{6

7

9}, Petra F Scudo⁵, Seth Lloyd^{4

10}, Angela M Belcher^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
² The David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
³ Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
⁴ Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
⁵ Research Center for Non-Conventional Energy, Istituto eni Donegani, eni S.p.A., Novara 28100, Italy.
⁶ European Laboratory for Non-linear Spectroscopy, University of Florence, Sesto Fiorentino 50019, Italy.
⁷ INO CNR, Sesto Fiorentino 50019, Italy.
⁸ QSTAR and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Florence, Florence 50125, Italy.
⁹ Department of Chemistry, University of Perugia, Perugia 06123, Italy.
¹⁰ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.

PMID: 26461447
DOI: 10.1038/nmat4448

Abstract

One of the challenges for achieving efficient exciton transport in solar energy conversion systems is precise structural control of the light-harvesting building blocks. Here, we create a tunable material consisting of a connected chromophore network on an ordered biological virus template. Using genetic engineering, we establish a link between the inter-chromophoric distances and emerging transport properties. The combination of spectroscopy measurements and dynamic modelling enables us to elucidate quantum coherent and classical incoherent energy transport at room temperature. Through genetic modifications, we obtain a significant enhancement of exciton diffusion length of about 68% in an intermediate quantum-classical regime.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Computer Simulation
Electrochemistry
Energy Transfer*
Genetic Engineering*
Materials Testing
Models, Theoretical
Spectrum Analysis
Temperature