I will review our recent results on development of hybrid material build from semiconductor nanocrystals and photoactive bio-complexes: - membrane protein bacteriorhodopsin and photosynthetic reaction centers purified from bacteria Rhodobacter spheroides. We have demonstrated that nanocrystals specifically immobilized on the surface of the photo-active bio-systems are able to play the role of a built-in light energy convertor by harvesting light which would not be absorbed efficiently by the bio-system alone. Semiconductor nanocrystals were further demonstrated to be able to transfer the harvested energy via highly efficient FRET to this complex biological system. We have also demonstrated a first proof-of-the-principle evidence that the bacteriorhodopsin is able to utilize the transferred by nanocrystals additional energy to improve the efficiency of its biological function.

Peer Reviewed