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Interfacing nature’s catalytic machinery with synthetic materials for semi-artificial photosynthesis

Nature Nanotechnology volume 13, pages 890–899 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Semi-artificial photosynthetic systems aim to overcome the limitations of natural and artificial photosynthesis while providing an opportunity to investigate their respective functionality. The progress and studies of these hybrid systems is the focus of this forward-looking perspective. In this Review, we discuss how enzymes have been interfaced with synthetic materials and employed for semi-artificial fuel production. In parallel, we examine how more complex living cellular systems can be recruited for in vivo fuel and chemical production in an approach where inorganic nanostructures are hybridized with photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic microorganisms. Side-by-side comparisons reveal strengths and limitations of enzyme- and microorganism-based hybrid systems, and how lessons extracted from studying enzyme hybrids can be applied to investigations of microorganism-hybrid devices. We conclude by putting semi-artificial photosynthesis in the context of its own ambitions and discuss how it can help address the grand challenges facing artificial systems for the efficient generation of solar fuels and chemicals.

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Fig. 1: Strengths and limitations of photosynthetic systems across the natural–artificial spectrum.
Fig. 2: Semi-artificial photoanodes.
Fig. 3: Colloidal enzyme- and cell-hybrid semi-artificial photosynthetic systems.
Fig. 4: Semi-artificial photocathodes.

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Acknowledgements

N.K. gratefully acknowledges a Royal Society Newton International Fellowship (NF160054). K.K.S. acknowledges the Harvard University Center for the Environment Fellowship. This work was supported by Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Geosciences and Biosciences Division, of the US Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231, FWP No. CH030201 (Catalysis Research Program). E.R. and J.Z.Z. acknowledge an ERC Consolidator Grant ‘MatEnSAP’ (682833). We thank N. Heidary, W. Robinson and S. Kalathil for discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Nikolay Kornienko, Jenny Z. Zhang & Erwin Reisner

  2. Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Nikolay Kornienko, Kelsey K. Sakimoto & Peidong Yang

  3. Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Kelsey K. Sakimoto

  4. Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Kelsey K. Sakimoto

  5. Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Peidong Yang

  6. Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Peidong Yang

  7. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Peidong Yang

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  1. Nikolay Kornienko
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  2. Jenny Z. Zhang
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  3. Kelsey K. Sakimoto
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  4. Peidong Yang
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  5. Erwin Reisner
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Correspondence to Peidong Yang or Erwin Reisner.

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Kornienko, N., Zhang, J.Z., Sakimoto, K.K. et al. Interfacing nature’s catalytic machinery with synthetic materials for semi-artificial photosynthesis. Nature Nanotech 13, 890–899 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-018-0251-7

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