Platinized Algae: Stable Photocatalytic Systems for HydrogenProduction

铂化藻类：用于制氢的稳定光催化系统

• 批准号: 8961216
• 负责人: G. Duncan Hitchens
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: Lynntech Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1990
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1990-01-01 至 1990-10-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=8961216&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Platinized; Algae; Stable; Photocatalytic; Systems

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.

氢是未来理想的燃料。在一个廉价化石燃料不断减少的时代，水几乎是取之不尽的氢和氧的来源。由于高等植物和藻类中存在光收集机制和活性氧化还原中心，在生物催化方法中利用太阳能进行水分解具有经济上的吸引力。然而，用于生物生产氢的系统是不切实际的，至少有以下一个原因：(a)分离植物（类囊体）膜的光系统在短时间内变得无活性；(b)产氢通常依赖于对氧高度敏感的酶（如氢化酶），(c)一些光生物产氢系统依赖于电子传递继电器，如甲基紫胶，它是可自动氧化和光敏的。提出的研究工作的目标是利用一种技术来克服这些基本问题，这些问题限制了使用生物系统作为光催化系统从水中生产氢和氧。在这项提案中，他们描述了测试将少量金属Pt直接沉积到蓝绿藻完整细胞的光合膜上的可行性的原理和基本步骤，作为获得具有长期稳定性的低成本光催化材料的一种手段。