Nonmetallic Abiotic-Biological Hybrid Photocatalyst for Visible Water Splitting and Carbon Dioxide Reduction.

ABSTRACT: Both artificial photosystems and natural photosynthesis have not reached their full potential for the sustainable conversion of solar energy into specific chemicals. A promising approach is hybrid photosynthesis combining efficient, non-toxic, and low-cost abiotic photocatalysts capable of water splitting with metabolically versatile non-photosynthetic microbes. Here, we report the development of a water-splitting enzymatic photocatalyst made of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) coupled with H2O2-degrading catalase and its utilization for hybrid photosynthesis with the non-photosynthetic bacterium Ralstonia eutropha for bioplastic production. The g-C3N4-catalase system has an excellent solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of 3.4% with a H2 evolution rate up to 55.72 ?mol h-1 while evolving O2 stoichiometrically. The hybrid photosynthesis system built with the water-spitting g-C3N4-catalase photocatalyst doubles the production of the bioplastic polyhydroxybutyrate by R. eutropha from CO2 and increases it by 1.84-fold from fructose. These results illustrate how synergy between abiotic non-metallic photocatalyst, enzyme, and bacteria can augment solar-to-multicarbon chemical conversion.

SUBMITTER: Tremblay PL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6971392 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature