Solar energy harvesting in the epicuticle of the oriental hornet (Vespa orientalis) |
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Authors: | Marian Plotkin Idan Hod Arie Zaban Stuart A Boden Darren M Bagnall Dmitry Galushko David J Bergman |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine Tel-Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, 69978, Israel;(2) Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, Department of Chemistry, Bar Ilan University, 52900 Ramat Gan, Israel;(3) Nano Research Group, Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK;(4) Department of Physics, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, 32000, Israel;(5) School of Physics and Astronomy, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, 69978, Israel |
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Abstract: | The Oriental hornet worker correlates its digging activity with solar insolation. Solar radiation passes through the epicuticle,
which exhibits a grating-like structure, and continues to pass through layers of the exo-endocuticle until it is absorbed by the pigment melanin in the brown-colored cuticle or xanthopterin in the yellow-colored
cuticle. The correlation between digging activity and the ability of the cuticle to absorb part of the solar radiation implies
that the Oriental hornet may harvest parts of the solar radiation. In this study, we explore this intriguing possibility by
analyzing the biophysical properties of the cuticle. We use rigorous coupled wave analysis simulations to show that the cuticle
surfaces are structured to reduced reflectance and act as diffraction gratings to trap light and increase the amount absorbed
in the cuticle. A dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) was constructed in order to show the ability of xanthopterin to serve as
a light-harvesting molecule. |
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