Sunlight is an abundant and environmentally clean source of energy.  Current solar energy research involves developing practical schemes for capturing, converting, and storing the sun’s energy in the form of high-energy bond of molecules as a reduced fuel, or “solar fuel”.  The direct production of the solar fuel hydrogen using sunlight and water is a particularly attractive approach to sustainable energy production.  Our research program has been developing systems that link Nature’s solar energy converters, photosynthetic reaction center proteins, to abiotic inorganic catalysts for light-driven hydrogen production.  The reaction centers Photosystem I and Photosystem II flawlessly manage photon capture and conversion processes in plants, algae, and cyanobacteria to drive oxygenic water splitting and carbon fixation. In recent work, we utilize the native photosynthetic Z-scheme electron transport chain to drive hydrogen production from thylakoid membranes by directional electron transport to abiotic catalysts bound at the stromal end of Photosystem I.  Pt-nanoparticle and first-row transition metal molecular catalysts readily self-assemble with Photosystem I in spinach and cyanobacterial membranes.  We show that, by self-assembling catalysts within the photosynthetic membrane, the system is self-sustaining as electrons that originate from the light-driven oxidation of water are transferred through Nature’s inherent, highly tuned electron transport chain to the abiotic sites for hydrogen generation.  This work provides the basis for future studies implementing <i>in vivo</i> approaches to generate living photosynthetic systems as a sustainable energy solution. <br/>

Shining light on photosynthetic reaction center biohybrids for hydrogen production

2019 Spring National Meeting

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