With the help of mirrors, placed only hundreds of nanometers away, scientists have managed to harness light efficiently. The discovery could be useful for controlling the first steps of photosynthesis. Something that could eventually be used to convert carbon dioxide into fuel.
The sunlight that hits our earth for one hour is almost equivalent to humanity’s total energy consumption for an entire year. At the same time, our global carbon dioxide emissions are increasing. Harnessing the sun’s energy to capture greenhouse gases and then converting them into fuel is a hot field of research. In an earlier study, a research team from Lund was able to show that with the help of advanced materials and ultrafast laser spectroscopy, levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere could be reduced in the long term. And in a study published in the scientific journal Nature Communications, Lundaledda’s research team has reached new heights when it comes to harnessing light.
– We inserted so-called antenna assemblies between two mirrors placed a few hundred nanometers apart in an optical microcavity. We can say that we collect the light that is reflected back and forth between mirrors in a kind of captivity, says Tönu Pullerits, a chemistry researcher at Lund University.
The study shows that there is a strong interaction between light and antenna arrays. And that it can create rings on the water that can speed up the energy transfer process. In order for the so-called photosynthetic light harvesting to work optimally and to be used, for example, to produce fuel, all stages of the intricate process must be very efficient.
– If we can take the first steps in photosynthesis faster and more efficiently, hopefully we can also make light energy from other units more efficient, says Tönu Pullerits.
How then can these results be useful? Tönu Pullerits hopes the discovery could be used in the future to develop larger units that can be used globally to use the sun to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it into useful chemicals. It could be one of many solutions to overcome the climate crisis we are facing.
– We have now taken a couple of first steps on a long journey. It can be said that we have charted a very promising direction, says Tönu Pullerits.
In addition to Lund University, the following universities and organizations participated in the study: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, University of Gothenburg, University of Glasgow.
The study is published in the journal Nature Communications: “Optical cavity-mediated exciton dynamics in photosynthetic light harvesting complex 2”
For more information contact:
Tonu Pullerits, professor
Department of Chemistry, Lund University
046 222 81 31
0768 37 26 03
Press contact:
073 027 58 90
