Ultrafast Electron Transfer in Au–Cyanobacteria Hybrid for Solar to Chemical Production

Qiushi Hu, Haitao Hu, Lei Cui, Zhaodong Li, Drazenka Svedruzic, Jeffrey L. Blackburn, Matthew C. Beard, Jun Ni, Wei Xiong, Xiang Gao*, Xihan Chen*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications and ReviewsRGC 21 - Publication in refereed journalpeer-review

25 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The rise of inorganic–biohybrid organisms for solar-to-chemical production has spurred mechanistic investigations into the dynamics of the biotic–abiotic interface to drive the development of next-generation hybrid systems. The model system, cyanobacteria–gold nanoparticle hybrids, combines a light harvester with a photosynthetic bacterium to drive the reduction of CO2 to glycerol with improved efficiency and increased glycerol production by 14.6%, in comparison to cyanobacteria only. In this work, we report insights into this unique photochemical behavior and propose a charge-transfer pathway from Au nanoparticle to cyanobacteria. Transient absorption (TA) spectroscopy revealed that photoexcited electron transfer rates are on the order of a few ps to the potential electron acceptor in photosystem II. This work represents a promising platform to utilize a conventional spectroscopic methodology to extract insights from more complex biotic–abiotic hybrid systems. © 2022 American Chemical Society
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)677-684
Number of pages8
JournalACS Energy Letters
Volume8
Issue number1
Online published22 Dec 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13 Jan 2023
Externally publishedYes

Research Keywords

  • Alcohols
  • Bacteria
  • Charge transfer
  • Kinetics
  • Metal nanoparticles

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