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Molecule-sized solar cell

15.10.2012

A team of scientists led by Joachim Reichert, Johannes Barth and Alexander Holleitner of the Technical University of Munich and Itai Carmeli of Tel Aviv University have developed a method to measure the photocurrent generated by just one molecule. The scientists were able to show that such single-molecule systems could be put together to generate a current. Of course, not on the scale of household electric current from a socket for, say, a refrigerator. Proteins are light-controlled, high-efficiency, single-molecule electronic pumps that can act as current generators in nanoscale electrical circuits. The results are published in Nature Nanotechnology this week.

Scientists have studied the reaction center, which is a complex of chlorophyll - a protein found in the membranes of chloroplasts from cyanobacteria. Plants, algae and bacteria use photosynthesis to convert solar energy into chemical energy. The initial stage of this process is where the protein absorbs light and the chemical energy is converted into electrical energy. So far, none of the available methods has been sensitive enough to measure the magnitude of the photocurrent of an individual protein.

The first and main problem of physicists was to develop a method for the electrical connection of single molecules in a strong light field. Photosynthetic proteins, optically excited by a stream of photons, are directed through a tetrahedral gold tip, which at the same time is an electrical contact. With this technique, physicists were able to observe the photocurrent generated by a single protein particle.

In the future, photosynthetic proteins promise to become promising blocks for use in molecular optoelectronics.

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Transcend StoreJet 35T3 8TB External Drives 02.07.2015

Transcend has announced an external hard drive StoreJet 35T3, designed to store up to 8 TB of information.

The novelty is built on the basis of a 3,5-inch hard drive. To connect to a computer, a USB 3.0 interface is used, providing a bandwidth of up to 5 Gb / s. According to Transcend, the actual data exchange rate between the PC and the drive is up to 200 MB / s.

A feature of the device is the One Touch Auto-Backup button to quickly start the process of backing up important information from a personal computer. Transcend Elite software is required to use this feature. The named application also allows you to encrypt information using the AES algorithm with a 256-bit key.

The drive has a power-saving mode that activates after 10 minutes of inactivity. Dimensions are 172,4 x 152,4 x 44,8 mm, weight - 1,04 kg. The design provides for vertical installation on the desktop.

In addition to the 8TB version, the StoreJet 35T3 series also includes 4TB and 3TB versions. The price is respectively 410, 210 and 160 US dollars.

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