Industrial Applications of Nanomaterials || Nanotechnology for biological photovoltaics; industrial applications of nanomaterials

摘要： This chapter describes the importance and use of nanotechnology for BPVs. Biological photovoltaics are solar energy conversion systems which are producing electricity based on the photosynthesis reaction takes place in thylakoid membrane. The process of collecting energy from BPV has been studied by the researchers to obtain highly efficient systems. For this reason, number of reports based on the BPVs, which focuses on direct and indirect electricity generation using soluble conductive mediators, has been published. Successful results reveal that these systems can convert sunlight into electricity, but there are some points to increase efficiency. The application of nanomaterials combined with BPV has shown tremendous improvement on the power output of BPV systems. Creating functional surfaces that “wiring” more biological components into the electrode was one of the first steps in nanotechnological advances to BPV systems. Large surface area according to the volume ratio makes anode and cathode electrodes more efficient in applications which is the another main improvement. The potential role of nanomaterials such as carbon nanotube and graphene has been studied with BPV for small and large-scale applications, highlighting the importance and application of green energy production. The electron transport mechanism in cyanobacteria and algae is well known, and the transformation of the newly designed systems into the photovoltaic device by means of nanomaterials with the aid of nanomaterials in the conversion of light into energy has also been shown. The results show that nanotechnology improves the energy conversion rate of BPV systems. It is foreseen that energy exchange rates will increase further with nanomaterial applications and the studies will continue toward industrial applications.