domino4chem: Semi-biological Domino Catalysis for Solar Chemical Synthesis

domino4chem：用于太阳能化学合成的半生物多米诺催化

• 批准号: EP/X030563/1
• 负责人: Erwin Reisner
• 金额: $ 274.53万
• 依托单位: University of Cambridge
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FX030563%2F1
• 关键词: domino4chem; Semi; biological; Domino; Catalysis

Mitigating CO2 emissions and transitioning to a circular economy are urgent actions to safeguard our prosperous future. Carbon capture and utilisation is a carbon-neutral process to recycle CO2 for the synthesis of valuable molecules and materials powered by renewable energy. The synthesis of fuels from CO2 using sunlight has made significant advances, but major challenges remain: (i) Synthetic approaches using semiconductors are highly efficient in light utilisation but can only produce the simplest of products from CO2; (ii) biological approaches can generate more complex products but are slow in CO2 uptake and inefficient in their use of solar energy.This proposal will pioneer the controlled synthesis of complex chemicals at high efficiency using sunlight by combining the strength of synthetic and biological technologies. An integrated platform will be developed that incorporates efficient light harvesting by semiconductors to drive a network of synthetic and biological catalysts to convert CO2 to bespoke complex chemical products. Specifically, photoelectrochemical tandem devices and photocatalyst powder sheets will be employed as the light harvesting component. These will drive a series of (bio)catalysts integrated in a bespoke porous architecture to catalyse compartmentalised reactions in sequence ('domino catalysis'). Synthetic catalysts will first reduce CO2 to vectors such as formate and CO with electrons being sourced from the oxidation of water to O2. The vectors will subsequently be used in the same device as feedstocks for microorganisms or enzyme/synthetic cascades to produce the target chemical. This vector-approach enables the efficient use of a wide range of catalysts, including engineered metabolic pathways, to synthesise desired products with a high degree of control.The proposed direct photon-to-chemical conversion technology will provide a general biohybrid platform to synthesise high value chemicals sustainably from sunlight in the future.

减少二氧化碳排放和向循环经济转型是保障我们繁荣未来的紧急行动。碳捕获和利用是一种碳中和过程，用于回收二氧化碳以合成由可再生能源驱动的有价值的分子和材料。利用阳光从二氧化碳合成燃料已经取得了重大进展，但仍然存在重大挑战：（i）使用半导体的合成方法在光利用方面非常高效，但只能从二氧化碳生产最简单的产品； (ii) 生物方法可以产生更复杂的产品，但二氧化碳吸收缓慢，并且利用太阳能的效率低。该提案将通过结合合成技术和生物技术的优势，开创利用阳光高效控制合成复杂化学品的先河。将开发一个集成平台，其中包含半导体的高效光收集，以驱动合成和生物催化剂网络，将二氧化碳转化为定制的复杂化学产品。具体来说，光电化学串联装置和光催化剂粉末片将被用作光捕获组件。这些将驱动一系列集成在定制多孔结构中的（生物）催化剂，以按顺序催化分区反应（“多米诺骨牌催化”）。合成催化剂首先将 CO2 还原为甲酸和 CO 等载体，电子来自水氧化成 O2 的过程。这些载体随后将在同一装置中用作微生物或酶/合成级联的原料，以生产目标化学品。这种矢量方法能够有效利用各种催化剂，包括工程代谢途径，以高度控制的方式合成所需的产品。所提出的直接光子到化学转化技术将为未来从阳光中可持续合成高价值化学品提供一个通用的生物混合平台。