SusChEM: Artificial Hydrogenases

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This award by the Chemistry of Life Processes Program to Professor Kara L. Bren of the University of Rochester will support the development of biomolecular catalysts for the production of hydrogen fuel from water. Hydrogen is an attractive, clean fuel because it is energy dense and when burned, produces only water as a byproduct. In this project, Professor Bren will prepare and optimize inexpensive, nontoxic hydrogen evolution catalysts consisting of peptides bound to metal ions. Successful catalysts will be interfaced with light-absorbing molecules to create an artificial photosynthetic system that allows sunlight to drive hydrogen production. This award will support the training of graduate students in state-of-the art biochemical, electrochemical, and photochemical techniques. To enhance the diversity of the scientific workforce, this award also will support the participation of hearing-impaired students from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in research seminars and summer research at the University of Rochester.This project will develop a new class of hydrogen evolution catalysts consisting of small metallopeptides. Metallopeptides are attractive catalysts because they are easy to synthesize, soluble in water, modular, and genetically encodable. These properties facilitate the preparation, modification, and incorporation of catalysts into functional assemblies. Modifications to the catalysts will be made by altering the charge, hydrogen-donor ability, coordinating groups, and flexibility of the peptide ligands. The hydrogen evolution activity will be tested electrochemically. Variants of the catalysts will be prepared to optimize their stability, turnover frequency, and overpotential. Catalysts that perform well by these measures will be incorporated into biosynthetic assemblies for light-driven hydrogen evolution. Success in this project will provide environmentally friendly, water-soluble systems for the storage of solar energy in the form of hydrogen fuel.