Platinized Algae: Stable Photocatalytic Systems for HydrogenProduction

氢气是未来理想的燃料。 时代的 随着廉价化石燃料的减少，水几乎是 取之不尽的氢和氧 利用 太阳能在水的生物催化方法 分裂在经济上是有吸引力的，因为光 收获机制和活性氧化还原中心 水分解存在于高等植物和藻类中。 然而，用于氢的生物生产的系统是不可行的。 不切实际，至少有以下原因之一： (a)离体植物的光系统（类囊体） 膜在短时间后变得无活性;（B） 氢生产通常高度依赖于 氧敏感酶（例如，氢化酶），和（c） 一些光生物制氢系统依赖于 在电子转移中继，如甲基紫精， 可自动氧化和光敏。 的目标 拟议的研究工作是利用单一的 技术来克服这些限制 使用生物系统作为光催化系统 用于从水中生产氢和氧。 在 这个建议，他们已经描述了主要的， 测试可行性所需的基本步骤 将少量的金属Pt直接沉积到 蓝绿色完整细胞的光合膜 藻类作为实现低成本光催化的手段 材料长期稳定。

Hydrogen is an ideal future fuel. In an era of declining cheap fossil fuels, water is an almost inexhaustible source of hydrogen and oxygen. Utilization of solar energy in the biocatalytic approach to water splitting is attractive economically, since the light harvesting mechanism and the active redox centers for water splitting exist in higher plants and algae. However, systems for the bioproduction of hydrogen are impractical, for at least one of the following reasons: (a) the photosystems of isolated plant (thylakoid) membranes become inactive after a short period; (b) hydrogen production is often dependent upon highly oxygen-sensitive enzymes (e.g., hydrogenases), and (c) some photobiological hydrogen-producing systems depend upon electron transfer relays, such as methyl viologen, that are auto-oxidizable and light-sensitive. The goal of the proposed research work is to utilize a single technique to overcome these basic problems that restrict the use of biological systems as photocatalytic systems for the production of hydrogen and oxygen from water. In this proposal, they have described the principal for, and the basic steps required to, test the feasibility of depositing low amounts of metallic Pt directly onto the photosynthetic membranes of intact cells of blue-green algae as a means of achieving a low-cost photocatalytic material with long term stability.