Oriented protein biocathodes for the production of renewable dihydrogen

该方案描述了一种新型的从水中生产氢气（H2）的系统的开发。新系统由两个含金属的蛋白质和一个短的蛋白质序列组成，该蛋白质序列将附着点固定在电活性表面上。表面是将水转化为H2所需的电流的初始来源。组装中的两种蛋白质可以被认为是建筑物的基础和建筑物本身。第一种蛋白质作为基础，介导电流流向第二种蛋白质，后者容纳产生H2所需的机器。所有参与这些活性位点的元素都是地球上丰富的铁。关键的进展是使用2-蛋白质组装体以最有效的方式相对于电活性电极材料定向H2产生位点。这种方法克服了迄今为止阻碍酶在可再生能源生产中使用的重要技术挑战。重要的是，我们认为这些新的设计将产生能够与使用稀有和昂贵元素（如铂）的最先进材料竞争的材料。

This proposal describes the development of a new type of system for the production of hydrogen gas (H2) fromwater. The new system is comprised of two metal-containing proteins and a short protein sequence that createsa point of attachment to electrically active surfaces. The surface is the initial source of the electric currentneeded to convert water to H2. The two proteins in the assembly can be thought of as the foundation of abuilding and the building itself. The first protein acts as the foundation and mediates the flow of electriccurrent to the second protein, which houses the machinery needed to produce H2. All of the elements involvedin those active sites are Earth-abundant iron. The key advance is the use of the 2-protein assembly to orient theH2-generating sites in the most efficient manner with respect to the electrically active electrode material. Thisapproach overcomes important technical challenges that have so far hindered the use of enzymes in renewableenergy production. Importantly, we think that these new designs stand to result in materials that can competewith state-of-the-art materials that employ scarce and costly elements, such as platinum.