Development of biohybrid nanoreactor systems for solar-driven fuel production Imogen L. Bishara-Robertson 1 , Vasiliki Tsina 1 , Huijie Zhang 1 , Erwin Reisner 2 , Julea N. Butt 3 , Sylvestre Bonnet 1 , Lars J. C. Jeuken 1 1 Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Universiteit Leiden, Einsteinweg 55, 2333CC Leiden, The Netherlands, 2 Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1EW, UK, 3 School of Chemistry and School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK There is an urgent need for sustainable energy sources such as solar fuels to replace the reliance of humanity on fossil fuels. Biological catalysts, which provide unparalleled catalytic specificity, can be integrated with durable inorganic light-harvesting materials in photosynthetic ‘biohybrid’ systems for solar-driven fuel production. Here, we seek to compartmentalise such photosynthetic systems by coupling synthetic light-harvesting materials, such as carbon dot (CD) nanoparticles 1 and tris(bipyridine)ruthenium complexes 2 , with the transmembrane cytochrome ‘nanowire’ protein MtrCAB from Shewanella oneidensis MR-1. Reconstituted into vesicle-based systems, which we call nanoreactors, MtrCAB can transport photoelectrons into the vesicle lumen for compartmentalised redox catalysis. 3 We hypothesise that optimising materials used within these nanoreactors, and thus enhancing the defined pathway of photoelectron transfer, will increase the potential longevity and scalability of these systems and help improve quantum yield by stabilising the charge separated state. We further propose that elements of this research can be used as a proof-of-principle for application in whole-cell biohybrid systems, in which the bacteria Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 could be directly sensitised with light-harvesting material and used as a biological catalyst. 4 References 1. H. Zhang, Adv. Funct. Mater., 2023, 33, 2302204
2. H. Song, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2022 , 144, 19353-19364 3. H. Zhang, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2024, 146(50), 34260-34264 4. I. L. Bishara Robertson, Chem. Sci., 2024 , 15, 9893-9914
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