Ecofriendly and efficient luminescent solar concentrators based on fluorescent proteins

Abstract

In recent years, luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) have received renewed attention as a versatile platform for large-area, high-efficiency, and low-cost solar energy harvesting. So far, artificial or engineered optical materials, such as rare-earth ions, organic dyes, and colloidal quantum dots (QDs) have been incorporated into LSCs. Incorporation of nontoxic materials into efficient device architectures is critical for environmental sustainability and clean energy production. Here, we demonstrated LSCs based on fluorescent proteins, which are biologically produced, ecofriendly, and edible luminescent biomaterials along with exceptional optical properties. We synthesized mScarlet fluorescent proteins in Escherichia coli expression system, which is the brightest protein with a quantum yield of 61% in red spectral region that matches well with the spectral response of silicon solar cells. Moreover, we integrated fluorescent proteins in an aqueous medium into solar concentrators, which preserved their quantum efficiency in LSCs and separated luminescence and wave-guiding regions due to refractive index contrast for efficient energy harvesting. Solar concentrators based on mScarlet fluorescent proteins achieved an external LSC efficiency of 2.58%, and the integration at high concentrations increased their efficiency approaching to 5%, which may facilitate their use as “luminescent solar curtains” for in-house applications. The liquid-state integration of proteins paves a way toward efficient and “green” solar energy harvesting.