Photobioanodes Based on Nanoimprinted Electrodes and Immobilized Chloroplasts

As the global energy demand continues to increase, interest in photosynthetic conversion is growing accordingly. Chloroplasts, organelles present plants and algae, are attractive candidates for construction of bio solar cells; however, they have been less studied because their complex membrane system, which restricts electrochemical communication with an electrode surface. Nevertheless, this work photobioanodes based on planar nanoimprinted gold substrates modified chloroplasts were designed evaluated. Apparently, nanoimprint lithography contributed higher photocurrent densities, not only owing enlarged real surface area, but also due boosting between electrode. Combining chloroplast-modified electrodes a capacitive part made substrate, coated conductive polymer, resulted dual-feature photobioanode providing lower open-circuit potential, i. e., ?0.11 V vs. Ag|AgCl|KClsat, enhanced capacitance ca. 37 F m?2 upon illumination 400 W m?2.