A living bionic leaf to produce solar fuels and chemicals from carbon dioxide

阳光是一种丰富的清洁和经济的能源。一小时的阳光可以满足全世界一年的能源需求。受自然光合作用的启发，该项目开发了一种仿生叶，通过将微生物与合成光收集器相结合，提供了一种将太阳能转化为燃料和化学品的混合方法。在这样的混合系统中，微生物以高速率和选择性执行在动力学和动力学上具有挑战性的化学反应，而光收集器充当微生物或功能组分的底物以进行光吸收、电荷转移和产物分离。该项目还通过基因表达分析、活/死测定和BioRad蛋白测定来研究光激发光收集器上的微生物生命。最后，该项目使用先进的光谱技术阐明了从光收集器到微生物的基本电子转移机制。

Sunlight is an abundant source of clean and economical energy. One-hour of sunlight can satisfy a year's energy demand across the entire world. Inspired from natural photosynthesis, the proposed project develops a bionic leaf that provides a hybrid approach to the conversion of solar energy into fuels and chemicals by integrating microbes with synthetic light harvesters. In such hybrid systems, microbes perform thermodynamically and kinetically challenging chemical reactions with high rates and selectivity, whereas light harvesters act as substrates for microbes or functional components to carry out light absorption, charge transfer and product separation. The project also investigates the microbial life on the photoexcited light harvesters by employing gene expression analysis, live/dead assay and BioRad protein assay. Finally, the project elucidates the fundamental electron transfer mechanism from light harvesters to microbes using advanced spectroscopic techniques.