Illustration Showing Differences Between Natural and In-lab Photosynthetic Process (IMAGE)

U.S. National Science Foundation

Illustration Showing Differences Between Natural and In-lab Photosynthetic Process

Caption

Solar energy is captured and converted to chemical fuel by a photosynthetic organism. Plug-and-play is designed to improve the efficiency of this capture and conversion by: 1) separating these two processes into two environments: one that captures solar energy and another that produces fuel; and 2) enabling electrical currents to flow from the former to the latter environment via electrically conductive bacterial nanowires that will be repurposed via bioengineering to form an electrical bridge between the two environments.

Credit

Zina Deretsky, NSF

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