Tobacco plants, infected with a genetically engineered virus, were used to produce artificial photovoltaic and photochemical cells, chromophores. The technique is more environmentally friendly than traditional methods of making solar cells and could lead to cheap, temporary and biodegradable solar cells.
Like a tightly coiled spiral staircase, individual chromophores are added one at a time until a rod hundreds of nanometers long is created. To get at the synthetic chromophores, scientists harvest the plants, chop them up, and extract the structures. Dissolved in a liquid solution, the structures are sprayed over a glass or plastic substrate coated with molecules that secure the rods to the plastic.
This offers several advantages over traditionally made solar panels. No environmentally toxic chemicals are required to make biologically derived solar cells, unlike traditional solar cells. Bio-based solar cells wouldn’t last as long as the average silicon solar cell, but they could act as a cheap, transportable, and temporary biodegradable power source. A solution of them could even be sprayed over plastic or glass to harvest energy.
However, it will be years before any consumer devices use the natural, yet synthetic, solar cells. (pi)
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