Sustainable biomaterials for solar energy technologies

The dramatic increase in the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and the apprehensive situation of energy supply are leading to the importance of renewable energy technology studies. Because solar energy is a sustainable energy source, developments in photovoltaic technologies are continuing rapidly. This section describes the biologically improved materials for photovoltaics application technology in detail. Biomaterials and natural compounds contribute to the sustainability of organic electronics because of the advantages of being environmentally friendly and naturally available. Despite these advantages, very few biomaterials have been included in organic-based solar cell production studies. For photovoltaic technologies, improvements or syntheses should be made by considering many physical properties such as hardness, elasticity, elongation coefficient, thermal strength point, optical properties, and long-term strength of candidate biomaterials. Therefore design, development or selection of special biomaterials can only be achieved with the collaboration of scientists in the materials science and bioengineering fields. While polymeric biomaterials used in the photovoltaic technology are generally polypeptide structured, applications with green technology such as microorganisms, pigments, and other biological systems (Photosystem I and Photosystem II) are rapidly growing. In this chapter, the processes of obtaining biomaterials and ways to improve productivity and stability to be used in photovoltaic technology by natural and/or synthetic biology approaches, will be discussed.