Efficient light harvesting biotic-abiotic nanohybrid system incorporating atomically thin van Der Waals transition metal dichalcogenides

Abstract

We report a nanohybrid based on an atomically thin, two-dimensional (2D) van Der Waals semiconductor, colloidal quantum dots and a light harvesting protein where step-wise energy transfer takes place. We connect nanocomponents of the nanohybrid via electrostatic self-assembly and layer-by-layer polyelectrolyte deposition and utilize bandgap engineering to created conditions for efficient directional stepwise energy transfer, from quantum dots, to proteins and to the 2D van Der Waals semiconductor, molybdenum diselenide (MoSe2). The biotic/abiotic nanohybrid exhibits enhanced absorption cross section and enhanced light harvesting through the addition of quantum dots and proteins next to MoSe2, which in turn leads to enhanced exciton generation in MoSe2 via energy transfer from quantum dots to proteins and finally to MoSe2.