Nature Communications (Jan 2019)

Artificial light-driven ion pump for photoelectric energy conversion

  • Kai Xiao,
  • Lu Chen,
  • Ruotian Chen,
  • Tobias Heil,
  • Saul Daniel Cruz Lemus,
  • Fengtao Fan,
  • Liping Wen,
  • Lei Jiang,
  • Markus Antonietti

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-08029-5
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 1
pp. 1 – 7

Abstract

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Biological light-driven ion pumps move ions against a concentration gradient to create a membrane potential, converting sunlight into an osmotic potential. Here, the authors make an artificial ion pump which drives ions thermodynamically uphill against a large concentration gradient upon illumination, which can be used for harvesting solar energy.