Nature has created the most sophisticated and efficient solar energy conversion system in plants, algae, and a wide variety of photosynthetic bacteria. These photosynthetic organisms harvest sunlight and store the energy in chemical forms. Crucial to these processes are light harvesting antenna proteins which capture sunlight and transfer it to a reaction center (RC) where the primary process of charge separation begins. The excited electrons then go through an electron transport chain to make chemical compounds to power the organisms' activities. The internal quantum yield of converting harvested light into the above mentioned electron transfer in these photosynthetic proteins is close to100%, Therefore the ability to understand how we could harvest the electrons produced during photosynthesis would help us to better design photovoltaic devices with higher conversion efficiency.
