{"id":162209,"date":"2025-04-25T07:29:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T05:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=162209"},"modified":"2025-04-22T11:33:49","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T09:33:49","slug":"artificial-photosynthesis-researchers-mimic-plants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/artificial-photosynthesis-researchers-mimic-plants\/","title":{"rendered":"Artificial Photosynthesis: Researchers Mimic Plants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\"This
This is what the stack of four dyes synthesised in W\u00fcrzburg looks like. It represents a further step towards artificial photosynthesis because it absorbs light energy and transfers it quickly and efficiently in the stack. \u00a9 Leander Ernst \/ Universit\u00e4t W\u00fcrzburg<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Photosynthesis is a marvellous process: plants use it to produce sugar molecules and oxygen from the simple starting materials carbon dioxide and water. They draw the energy they need for this complex process from sunlight.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If humans could imitate photosynthesis, it would have many advantages. The free energy from the sun could be used to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use it to build carbohydrates and other useful substances. It would also be possible to produce hydrogen, as photosynthesis splits water into its components oxygen and hydrogen.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photosynthesis: a Complex Process With Many Participants<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

So it’s no wonder that many researchers are working on artificial photosynthesis. This is not easy, because photosynthesis is an extremely complex process: it takes place in the cells of plants in many individual steps and involves numerous dyes, proteins and other molecules. However, science is constantly making new advances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the leading researchers in the field of artificial photosynthesis is chemist Professor Frank W\u00fcrthner from Julius-Maximilians-Universit\u00e4t (JMU) W\u00fcrzburg in Bavaria, Germany. His team has now succeeded in imitating one of the first steps of natural photosynthesis with a sophisticated arrangement of artificial dyes and analysing it more precisely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The results were obtained in collaboration with Professor Dongho Kim’s group at Yonsei University in Seoul (Korea). They have been published in the journal Nature Chemistry<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast and Efficient Energy Transport in a Stacking System<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The researchers have succeeded in synthesising a stack of dyes that is very similar to the photosynthetic apparatus in plant cells \u2013 it absorbs light energy at one end, uses it to separate charge carriers and transfers them step by step to the other end via a transport of electrons. The structure consists of four stacked dye molecules from the perylene bisimide class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018We can specifically trigger the charge transport in this structure with light and have analysed it in detail. It is efficient and fast. This is an important step towards the development of artificial photosynthesis,\u2019 says JMU PhD student Leander Ernst, who synthesised the stacked structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supramolecular Wires as the Goal of the Research Work<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Next, the JMU research team wants to expand the nanosystem of stacked dye molecules from four to more components \u2013 with the aim of ultimately creating a kind of supramolecular wire that absorbs light energy and transports it quickly and efficiently over longer distances. This would be a further step towards novel photofunctional materials that can be used for artificial photosynthesis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Publication<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Photoinduced stepwise charge hopping in \u03c0-stacked perylene bisimide donor-bridge-acceptor arrays. Leander Ernst, Hongwei Song, Dongho Kim, Frank W\u00fcrthner. Nature Chemistry, 14 March 2025<\/em>, DOI 10.1038\/s41557-025-01770-7<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Funding<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Bavarian Ministry of Science has funded the work as part of the \u2018Solar Technologies go Hybrid\u2019 (SolTech) research network. https:\/\/www.soltech-go-hybrid.de\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The work at Yonsei University in Seoul was funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Contact<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Prof. Dr Frank W\u00fcrthner, Institute of Organic Chemistry
Center for Nanosystems Chemistry, University of W\u00fcrzburg
E-Mail: frank.wuerthner@uni-wuerzburg.de<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photosynthesis is a marvellous process: plants use it to produce sugar molecules and oxygen from the simple starting materials carbon dioxide and water. They draw the energy they need for this complex process from sunlight. If humans could imitate photosynthesis, it would have many advantages. The free energy from the sun could be used to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":162230,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"With artificial photosynthesis, mankind could utilise solar energy to bind carbon dioxide and produce hydrogen. W\u00fcrzburg chemists have taken this one step further","footnotes":""},"categories":[5571],"tags":[10416,15511,20598],"supplier":[26186,26185,1543,14544],"class_list":["post-162209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-co2-based","tag-circulareconomy","tag-greenhydrogen","tag-photosyntesis","supplier-bayerisches-staatsministerium-fur-wissenschaft-und-kunst","supplier-national-research-foundation-of-korea","supplier-universitaet-wuerzburg","supplier-yonsei-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162209"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=162209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}