Research Interests
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.
Our research group is focusing on both the fundamental principles and potential applications of photosynthetic organisms in the following areas:
- Photosynthetic RCs for photovoltaic and energy storage devices
- Photosynthetic proteins for hydrogen production
- To understand the dynamics of charge transfer within photosynthetic proteins photoelectrochemical cells by ultrafast spectroscopy.
- To use plasmonic effects to enhance light absorption ability of RCs’ cells
- Genetic modifications of photosynthetic proteins for enhanced light absorption (Through collaboration with our co-workers at the University of Bristol)
- Creating a nanoscale-scaffold to allow more proteins to be attached to electrode surfaces to enhance the performance of these types of proteins-based photoelectrochemical cells.
Selected Publications:
- V.K. Singh, S.K. Ravi, W. Sun, S.C. Tan* Transparent Nano-Fibrous Mesh Self-Assembled from Molecular LEGOs for High Efficiency Air Filtration with New Functionalities. Small, 13, 1601924 (2017)
- S.K. Ravi, Y. Zhimeng, D.J.K. Swainsbury, J. Ouyang, M.R. Jones, S.C. Tan* Enhanced output from biohybrid photoelectrochemical transparent tandem cells integrating photosynthetic proteins genetically modified for expanded solar energy harvesting. Advanced Energy Materials, 7, 1601821 (2017)
- S.K. Ravi, S.C. Tan* Progress and perspectives in exploiting photosynthetic biomolecules for solar energy harnessing. Energy & Environmental Science, 8, 2551 (2015)
- C. Hou, X. Jia, L. Wei, S.C. Tan, X. Zhao, J. D. Joannopoulos, Y. Fink, Crystalline silicon core fibres from aluminium core preforms. Nature Communications, 06, 6248 (2015) (Highlighted in https://newsoffice.mit.edu/2015/high-quality-fiber-electronic-devices-0220
- Gao F.*, Tan S.C.,* del Alamo J., Thompson C.V., Palacios T., On the origin of structural and electrical degradation in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs off-state stress. IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, 61, 457 (2014).
- Tan S.C., Yan F., Crouch L.I., Robertson J., Jones M.R., Welland M.E. Superhydrophobic carbon nanotube electrode produces a near symmetrical alternating current from photosynthetic protein-based photoelectrochemical cells. Advanced Functional Materials. 23, 5556 (2013)
- Tan S.C., Crouch L.I., Mahajan S., Jones M.R., Welland M.E. Tuning the open circuit voltage of photoprotein-based photoelectrochemical cells by manipulation of the vacuum potential of the electrolyte. ACS NANO, 6, 9103 (2012)
- Tan S.C., Crouch L.I., Jones M.R., Welland M.E.. Generation of alternating current in response to discontinuous illumination by novel photoelectrochemical cells based on photosynthetic proteins. Angewantde Chemie International Edition, 51, 6667 (2012)
*Shared first authorship