Energy harvesting capability of lipid-merocyanine macromolecules: a new design and performance model development

Light induced cis/trans isomerization in the family of merocyanine (MC) dyes offers a recyclable proton pumping ability which can potentially be used in hybrid bio-electronic devices. In this article, a hexadecyl MC dye is embedded in lipid molecules to make a macromolecular configuration of a lipid/hexadecyl MC membrane. Lipid molecules play a critical role in stabilizing the dye in a membrane structure for practical use in energy devices. In this study, we first examined the proton pumping characteristic of the lipid/hexadecyl MC membrane in a conventional photoelectrochemical cell. Next, a major modification in the cell was introduced by eliminating I2/I-electrolyte which resulted in a two-fold increase in the open circuit voltage compared with that of the conventional cell. In addition, the charging time in the new cell was reduced approximately four orders of magnitude. This research demonstrated that the newly designed lipid- MC cell can act as a promising bioelectronic device based on the green energy of photoinduced MC dye proton pumping.