Direct Extraction of Photosynthetic Electrons from Single Algal Cells by Nanoprobing System

There are numerous sources of bioenergy that are generated by photosynthetic processes, for example, lipids, alcohols, hydrogen, and polysaccharides. However, generally only a small fraction of solar energy absorbed by photosynthetic organisms is converted to a form of energy that can be readily exploited. To more efficiently use the solar energy harvested by photosynthetic organisms, we evaluated the feasibility of generating bioelectricity by directly extracting electrons from the photosynthetic electron transport chain before they are used to fix CO2 into sugars and polysaccharides. From a living algal cell, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, photosynthetic electrons (1.2 pA at 6000 mA/m2) were directly extracted without a mediator electron carrier by inserting a nanoelectrode into the algal chloroplast and applying an overvoltage. This result may represent an initial step in generating “high efficiency” bioelectricity by directly harvesting high energy photosynthetic electrons.