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A red-light-powered silicon nanowire biophotochemical diode for simultaneous CO2 reduction and glycerol valorization

Nature Catalysis (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

A bias-free photochemical diode, in which a p-type photocathode is connected to an n-type photoanode to harness light for driving photoelectrochemical reduction and oxidation pairs, serves as a platform for realizing light-driven fuel generation from CO2. However, the conventional design, in which cathodic CO2 reduction is coupled with the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER), requires substantial energy input. Here we present a photochemical diode device that harnesses red light (740 nm) to simultaneously drive biophotocathodic CO2-to-multicarbon conversion and photoanodic glycerol oxidation as an alternative to the OER to overcome the above thermodynamic limitation. The device consists of an efficient CO2-fixing microorganism, Sporomusa ovata, interfaced with a silicon nanowire photocathode and a Pt–Au-loaded silicon nanowire photoanode. This photochemical diode operates bias-free under low-intensity (20 mW cm−2) red light irradiation with ~80% Faradaic efficiency for both the cathodic and anodic products. This work provides an alternative photosynthetic route to mitigate excessive CO2 emissions and efficiently generate value-added chemicals from CO2 and glycerol.

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Fig. 1: Overview of SiNW biophotochemical diodes for simultaneous CO2RR and GOR.
Fig. 2: Photoelectrochemistry of abiotic SiNW photocathodes in neutral pH buffer.
Fig. 3: SiNW biophotocathodes for the CO2RR and SiNW photoanodes for the GOR.
Fig. 4: PEC performance of the biophotochemical diode in a two-electrode configuration.

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The data that support the findings of this study are available within the article and its Supplementary Information or from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Marvell Nanofabrication Laboratory at UC Berkeley for use of their facilities. We thank H. Celik and UC Berkeley’s NMR facility in the College of Chemistry (CoC-NMR) for spectroscopic assistance. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (grant no. DMR-221716). Jimin Kim acknowledges the Kwanjeong Educational Foundation for a fellowship. J.-A.L. thanks the Taiwan Ministry of Education and Liquid Sunlight Alliance, which is supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Fuels from Sunlight Hub, for financial support (award no. DE-SC0021266). The instruments in CoC-NMR are supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (grant no. S10OD024998).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Jimin Kim, Jia-An Lin.

Authors and Affiliations

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

    Jimin Kim & Peidong Yang

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

    Jia-An Lin, Jinhyun Kim, Inwhan Roh & Peidong Yang

  3. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Jinhyun Kim & Soohyung Lee

  4. Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Peidong Yang

  5. Kavli Energy Nanosciences Institute, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Peidong Yang

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Contributions

Jimin Kim and P.Y. designed the experiments. J.-A.L. and I.R. fabricated the silicon nanowire electrodes. Jimin Kim and Jinhyun Kim cultured and incubated the bacteria. Jimin Kim, Jinhyun Kim and J.-A.L. performed the electrochemical and light-driven experiments. Jimin Kim, J.-A.L. and P.Y. co-wrote the paper. All of the authors discussed the results and revised the paper.

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Correspondence to Peidong Yang.

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Nature Catalysis thanks Jingjing Xie and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Kim, J., Lin, JA., Kim, J. et al. A red-light-powered silicon nanowire biophotochemical diode for simultaneous CO2 reduction and glycerol valorization. Nat Catal (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-024-01198-1

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