Natural-photosynthesis-inspired photovoltaic cells using carotenoid aggregates as electron donors and chlorophyll derivatives as electron acceptors

Abstract

Carotenoids (Cars) and chlorophylls (Chls) are major pigments playing key roles in light-harvesting and energy transfer processes in natural photosynthetic apparatus. We demonstrated, in this study, photovoltaic cells with entire active layers consisting of a linear Car, lycopene, as the electron donor and Chl derivatives, either methyl 3²,3²-dicyano-pyropheophorbide-a (Chl-1) or methyl 13¹-deoxo-13¹-(dicyanomethylene)pyropheophorbide-a (Chl-2), as the electron acceptor.