SusChEM: Artificial Hydrogenases

这个奖项由生命过程计划的化学教授卡拉L。罗切斯特大学的Bren将支持开发用于从水中生产氢燃料的生物分子催化剂。氢是一种有吸引力的清洁燃料，因为它是能量密集的，燃烧时只产生水作为副产品。在这个项目中，Bren教授将制备和优化由与金属离子结合的肽组成的廉价、无毒的析氢催化剂。成功的催化剂将与光吸收分子结合，创造一个人工光合系统，允许阳光驱动氢气生产。该奖项将支持研究生在最先进的生物化学，电化学和光化学技术的培训。为了提高科学工作者的多样性，该奖项还将支持国家聋人技术研究所的听力受损学生参加罗切斯特大学的研究研讨会和夏季研究。该项目将开发一种由小金属肽组成的新型析氢催化剂。 金属肽是有吸引力的催化剂，因为它们易于合成，可溶于水，模块化，和遗传编码。这些性质促进了催化剂的制备、改性和并入功能组装体中。通过改变肽配体的电荷、氢供体能力、配位基团和柔性来对催化剂进行修饰。 将以电化学方式测试析氢活性。将制备催化剂的变体以优化其稳定性、转换频率和过电位。通过这些措施表现良好的催化剂将被纳入生物合成组件中，用于光驱动的氢气释放。该项目的成功将为以氢燃料形式储存太阳能提供环境友好的水溶性系统。

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.