Benefits to Society

Summary:

Researchers have developed a solar cell that converts sunlight into energy through the photosynthetics of plants. Grounded and purified spinach to harvest photosynthetic proteins. They did this because this released a necessary protein. Proteins act as cell membranes, allowing the functioning of proteins outside their natural environment. Proteins absorb light and deflect electrons in order to create an electric current. When the photosynthetic proteins are taken out of their environment, they die. A scientist figured out that detergent peptides could be manipulated to keep the proteins alive. Spinach was used because it cheap and a plant found everywhere. A top layer of glass was coated underneath the conductive material with a layer of gold to aid the chemical reaction. The middle, the spinach-peptide mixture sits on a soft, organic semiconductor that precents electrical shorts and protects the protein complexes from a bottom layer of metal. The energy from the process is little but when it is combined with millions others, it produces a big amount of energy. Lastly, this is the first photosynthetic protein molecular combined with a solid state electronic device.

Benefits to Society :

There are many benefits of this discovery in science although this wont be used in application for many years to come. The process is very a useful breakthrough because we can isolate the photosynthetic cells from plants for long periods of time. This will allow use to use photosynthetic cells later for other experiments. This allows us to create solar cells from materials used in our everyday lives. Also