Coating graphene with chlorophyll enables a light activated switch

Researchers from Taiwan's Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences developed a light-activated switch by coating graphene with chlorophyll. This is a simple photon transistor - two silver electrodes, connected by a sheet of graphene which is covered by a layer of chlorophyll (using drop casting).

When the chlorophyll is exposed to light it releases electrons into the graphene. Chlorophyll is very efficient - each photon that it absorbs increases the current by about a million electrons. The device that the researchers made is very basic and will need a lot of work before it can be commercialized.

Graphene has a lot of potentials for energy generation and harvesting. There's a lot of research into using graphene in solar cells (for example in MIT, Manchester University and stanford. Graphene may also be used to boost the efficiency of artificial photosynthesis systems.

Posted: Jun 20,2013 by Ron Mertens