Journal
NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY
Volume 5, Issue 1, Pages 73-79Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/NNANO.2009.315
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Funding
- National Science Foundation (NSF) Nanoscience Interdisciplinary Research Team (NIRT) [DBI-0403781]
- NSF Sustainable Science [CBET 0828615]
- B. D. B. A SARIF Award and Science Alliance Award
- Directorate For Engineering [0828615] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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There is considerable interest in making use of solar energy through photosynthesis to create alternative forms of fuel. Here, we show that photosystem I from a thermophilic bacterium and cytochrome-c(6) can, in combination with a platinum catalyst, generate a stable supply of hydrogen in vitro upon illumination. The self-organized platinization of the photosystem I nanoparticles allows electron transport from sodium ascorbate to photosystem I via cytochrome-c(6) and finally to the platinum catalyst, where hydrogen gas is formed. Our system produces hydrogen at temperatures up to 55 degrees C and is temporally stable for >85 days with no decrease in hydrogen yield when tested intermittently. The maximum yield is similar to 5.5 mu mol H(2) h(-1) mg(-1) chlorophyll and is estimated to be similar to 25-fold greater than current biomass-to-fuel strategies. Future work will further improve this yield by increasing the kinetics of electron transfer, extending the spectral response and replacing the platinum catalyst with a renewable hydrogenase.
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