Bias-free photoelectrochemical water splitting with photosystem II on a dye-sensitized photoanode wired to hydrogenase
Accepted version
Peer-reviewed
Repository URI
Repository DOI
Change log
Authors
Abstract
Natural photosynthesis stores sunlight in chemical energy carriers, but it has not evolved for the efficient synthesis of fuels, such as H2. Semi-artificial photosynthesis combines the strengths of natural photosynthesis with synthetic chemistry and materials science to develop model systems that overcome Nature’s limitations, such as low-yielding metabolic pathways and non-complementary light absorption by Photosystem (PS) I and II. Here, we report a bias-free semi-artificial tandem platform that wires PSII to hydrogenase for overall water splitting. This photoelectrochemical cell integrated the red and blue light-absorber PSII with a green light-absorbing diketopyrrolopyrrole dye-sensitised TiO2 photoanode enabling complementary panchromatic solar light absorption. Effective electronic communication at the enzyme-material interface was engineered using an Os complex-modified redox polymer on a hierarchically-structured TiO2. This system provides a design protocol for bias-free semi-artificial Z-schemes in vitro and provides an extended toolbox of biotic and abiotic components to re-engineer photosynthetic pathways.
Description
Keywords
Journal Title
Conference Name
Journal ISSN
2058-7546
Volume Title
Publisher
Publisher DOI
Sponsorship
European Research Council (682833)
Royal Society (NF160054)
EPSRC (1504802)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/G037221/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/L015978/1)