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Recent Advances in Photosynthetic Materials

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 February 2022) | Viewed by 11547

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
University of Szeged (SZTE), Szeged, Hungary
Interests: photosynthesis; bioenergetics; molecular bionics; biosensors; biohybrid materials

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Guest Editor
Biological Research Centre, 6726 Szeged, Hungary
Interests: photosynthesis; biophysics; light-harvesting; ultrafast spectroscopy

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The conversion of light into chemical energy is one of the most important phenomena for both basic science (the theory of light–matter interaction) and for practical application (input of free energy of ecosystems, food production, energy conversion and storage for human uses, imaging devices, integrated opto-electronics, etc.). Photosynthetic systems are structured at every level of biological organization (from simple photosensitive molecules and (macro) molecular complexes through to membranes and cells up to individuals and supra-individual systems) for extremely efficient and specific functions, and can be used in smart bio-technology by combining them with new generation of advanced materials. Based on the unique properties of photosynthetic systems, a new generation of applications (components of integrated optoelectronic devices for photo and biosensors, fast optical switches and logic gates in circuits, etc.) are also under exploration in bio-technology research. The aim of the Special Issue is to provide a platform for and accept manuscripts comprising original results, reviews, and theoretical considerations in the field of light–matter interaction in living systems at any level of photosynthetic organization, as well as in artificial and biomimetic materials.

Dr. László Nagy
Dr. Petar H. Lambrev
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • photosynthesis
  • light harvesting
  • photon energy conversion
  • biophotonics
  • organic optoelectronics
  • bioenergetics

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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23 pages, 3048 KiB  
Article
Fully Quantum Modeling of Exciton Diffusion in Mesoscale Light Harvesting Systems
by Fulu Zheng, Lipeng Chen, Jianbo Gao and Yang Zhao
Materials 2021, 14(12), 3291; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma14123291 - 14 Jun 2021
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2622
Abstract
It has long been a challenge to accurately and efficiently simulate exciton–phonon dynamics in mesoscale photosynthetic systems with a fully quantum mechanical treatment due to extensive computational resources required. In this work, we tackle this seemingly intractable problem by combining the Dirac–Frenkel time-dependent [...] Read more.
It has long been a challenge to accurately and efficiently simulate exciton–phonon dynamics in mesoscale photosynthetic systems with a fully quantum mechanical treatment due to extensive computational resources required. In this work, we tackle this seemingly intractable problem by combining the Dirac–Frenkel time-dependent variational method with Davydov trial states and implementing the algorithm in graphic processing units. The phonons are treated on the same footing as the exciton. Tested with toy models, which are nanoarrays of the B850 pigments from the light harvesting 2 complexes of purple bacteria, the methodology is adopted to describe exciton diffusion in huge systems containing more than 1600 molecules. The superradiance enhancement factor extracted from the simulations indicates an exciton delocalization over two to three pigments, in agreement with measurements of fluorescence quantum yield and lifetime in B850 systems. With fractal analysis of the exciton dynamics, it is found that exciton transfer in B850 nanoarrays exhibits a superdiffusion component for about 500 fs. Treating the B850 ring as an aggregate and modeling the inter-ring exciton transfer as incoherent hopping, we also apply the method of classical master equations to estimate exciton diffusion properties in one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) B850 nanoarrays using derived analytical expressions of time-dependent excitation probabilities. For both coherent and incoherent propagation, faster energy transfer is uncovered in 2D nanoarrays than 1D chains, owing to availability of more numerous propagating channels in the 2D arrangement. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Photosynthetic Materials)
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Review

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17 pages, 2772 KiB  
Review
Photoautotrophs–Bacteria Co-Cultures: Advances, Challenges and Applications
by Viviana Scognamiglio, Maria Teresa Giardi, Daniele Zappi, Eleftherios Touloupakis and Amina Antonacci
Materials 2021, 14(11), 3027; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma14113027 - 02 Jun 2021
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 8157
Abstract
Photosynthetic microorganisms are among the fundamental living organisms exploited for millennia in many industrial applications, including the food chain, thanks to their adaptable behavior and intrinsic proprieties. The great multipotency of these photoautotroph microorganisms has been described through their attitude to become biofarm [...] Read more.
Photosynthetic microorganisms are among the fundamental living organisms exploited for millennia in many industrial applications, including the food chain, thanks to their adaptable behavior and intrinsic proprieties. The great multipotency of these photoautotroph microorganisms has been described through their attitude to become biofarm for the production of value-added compounds to develop functional foods and personalized drugs. Furthermore, such biological systems demonstrated their potential for green energy production (e.g., biofuel and green nanomaterials). In particular, the exploitation of photoautotrophs represents a concrete biorefinery system toward sustainability, currently a highly sought-after concept at the industrial level and for the environmental protection. However, technical and economic issues have been highlighted in the literature, and in particular, challenges and limitations have been identified. In this context, a new perspective has been recently considered to offer solutions and advances for the biomanufacturing of photosynthetic materials: the co-culture of photoautotrophs and bacteria. The rational of this review is to describe the recently released information regarding this microbial consortium, analyzing the critical issues, the strengths and the next challenges to be faced for the intentions attainment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Photosynthetic Materials)
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