Polythiophene-Peptide Biohybrid Assemblies for Enhancing Photoinduced Hydrogen Evolution

The self-assembly of short peptide offers versatile processes for adjusting the ordered stacking of organic functional materials to enhance photoinduced electron transfer. Herein, this study presents the first demonstration of the use of A(16-22) peptide to prepare polythiophene/A(16-22) assemblies for a photocatalytic water splitting system. Isothermal titration microcalorimetry results show that the driving forces for polythiophene/A(16-22) assembly formation are electrostatic interactions, as well as hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interactions. The assemblies accelerate the photoinduced electrons transfer from polythiophene upon light excitation and eventually enhance the hydrogen evolution. This work opens a new way into the development of biohybrid materials as novel photocatalytic water splitting platform for hydrogen evolution.