AUTHOR=Ge-Zhang Shangjie , Cai Taoyang , Song Mingbo 

TITLE=Life in biophotovoltaics systems

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=Volume 14 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2023.1151131

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2023.1151131

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=As the most suitable potential clean energy power generation technology, biophotovoltaics (BPVs) not only inherits the inherent advantages of traditional photovoltaics, but also solves the disadvantages of high pollution and high energy consumption in the manufacturing process, providing new functions of self-repair and natural degradation. However, BPV has the disadvantage of low photocurrent output. The basic idea of BPV is to collect light energy and generate electric energy by using photosynthetic autotrophs or their parts, and the core is how these biological materials can quickly and low-loss transfer electrons to the anode through mediators after absorbing light energy and generating electrons. In this mini-review, we summarized the biological materials widely used in BPV at present, mainly cyanobacteria, green algae, biological combinations and isolated products, pointed out the limitations that affected the development of BPVs’ biological materials, and put forward reasonable assumptions accordingly.