Artificial "chloroplast" helps "water to hydrogen"

The chemical reaction pathway focusing on plant biology has been transformed into a new technology that uses solar energy to convert water into hydrogen fuel. A new study by the US Department of Energy ’s Argonne National Laboratory shows that scientists have combined two membrane-bound protein complexes to complete the complete conversion of water molecules to hydrogen and oxygen. The research report was published in the recently published "Chemical Science" magazine.

The study is based on an early study that detected a protein complex called "photosystem I". It is a membrane protein that can use light energy to provide electrons to an inorganic catalyst that produces hydrogen, but this only accounts for half of the entire hydrogen production process.

Chemist Lisa Utschig of Argonne National Laboratory and colleagues used the second protein complex, "Photosystem II", to use light energy to split water and obtain electrons from it. They can obtain electrons from the water, and then input them into the "light system I".

Lisa Utschig said: "The perfection of the design lies in its simplicity. It uses natural membranes to assemble the catalyst by itself to achieve the expected chemical reaction."

In the early experiments, the researchers provided "photosystem I" with electrons derived from sacrificial electron donors. The technique was how to get two electrons into the catalyst in rapid succession.

These two protein complexes can be embedded in thylakoid membranes, just like the chloroplasts that produce oxygen in higher plants. This natural film is directly extracted from nature, and it is essential for the pairing of these two optical systems. Structurally, the natural membrane supports both photosystems at the same time and provides a direct way for electron transfer within the protein, but does not hinder the coupling process of the catalyst and "photosystem I".

Lisa Utschig said that the model is a clever combination of light-triggered thylakoid membrane natural photosynthesis electron transport chain technology and synthetic catalyst.

Another improvement is to replace the expensive platinum catalysts used in previous studies with cobalt or nickel catalysts. The latest cobalt or nickel catalysts can significantly reduce potential costs. (Yang Yan)

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