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"2 electrons with 1 photon" --- that is how photosynthesis works in nature. Great thinking!
by geoalchimista 7y ago
"2 electrons with 1 photon" --- that is how photosynthesis works in nature. Great thinking!
- snaky 7y agoPhotosynthesis is less efficient than solar panels. According to the Wikipedia page on photosynthetic efficiency, typical plants have a radiant energy to chemical energy conversion efficiency between 0.1% and 2%.
- geoalchimista 7y agoIt's true but photosynthesis has two stages. The light reaction stage is quite efficient. Chlorophyll a is slightly more efficient than commercial solar panels. The dark reaction stage, which assimilates CO2 to produce carbohydrates, is the limiting step that drives the efficiency down.
- anticensor 7y agoNon-light sensitive parts of photosynthesis has to be inefficient because otherwise aerobic respiration would be inefficient.
- timbit42 7y agoWhat about bamboo?
- kragen 7y agoYes, bamboo too. Sorry.
- snovv_crash 7y agoThe outlier is sugar cane, with efficiency around 8%
- Obi_Juan_Kenobi 7y agoEfficiency can be a few different things, though. The actual antenna structures and reaction centers are reasonably efficient, at least over certain wavelengths. Even through electron transport and the whole photosystem, things still aren't too bad. But overall efficiency tanks because of Rubisco. Even with C4 and CA metabolism, oxygenation is a major limitation.
- adrianN 7y agoThere are a few steps involved from activated electrons to Glucose that solar panels skip.
- pontifier 7y agoMy quantum physics teacher at the U of U was doing research in this area about 10 years ago. It was very interesting hearing him talk about that process, and the ways that different plant molecules capture energy in different ways. I seem to remember something about matching up photon energies so that extra energy isn't wasted, and multiple frequencies can contribute usefully.
- selimthegrim 7y agoWho at Utah was your teacher? Vardeny?
- pontifier 7y agoHis name is John Lupton. It looks like he's still doing research in this area. Very interesting stuff. Edit: here's a link to some info about his work: http://www.physik.uni-regensburg.de/forschung/lupton/lupton/research.php http://www.physik.uni-regensburg.de/forschung/lupton/lupton/...
- selimthegrim 7y agoThanks! Downloaded one of his recent papers, very interesting indeed.