Sustaining Electron Transfer Pathways Extends Biohybrid Photoelectrode Stability to Years

Vincent M Friebe; Agata J Barszcz; Michael R Jones; Raoul N Frese

doi:10.1002/anie.202201148

Sustaining Electron Transfer Pathways Extends Biohybrid Photoelectrode Stability to Years

Vincent M Friebe^*
, Agata J Barszcz
, Michael R Jones
, Raoul N Frese

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Biochemistry

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review

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Abstract

The exploitation of natural photosynthetic enzymes in semi-artificial devices constitutes an attractive and potentially sustainable route for the conversion of solar energy into electricity and solar fuels. However, the stability of photosynthetic proteins after incorporation in a biohybrid architecture typically limits the operational lifetime of biophotoelectrodes to a few hours. Here, we demonstrate ways to greatly enhance the stability of a mesoporous electrode coated with the RC-LH1 photoprotein from Rhodobacter sphaeroides. By preserving electron transfer pathways, we extended operation under continuous high-light to 33 days, and operation after storage to over two years. Coupled with large photocurrents that reached peak values of 4.6 mA cm -2 , the optimized biophotoelectrode produced a cumulative output of 86 C cm -2 , the largest reported performance to date. Our results demonstrate that the factor limiting stability is the architecture surrounding the photoprotein, and that biohybrid sensors and photovoltaic devices with operational lifetimes of years are feasible.

Original language	English
Article number	e202201148
Number of pages	9
Journal	Angewandte Chemie - International Edition
Volume	61
Issue number	24
Early online date	18 Mar 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202201148
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 18 Mar 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge Sofie Zajíc Klabbers for her scientific contributions to this work. R.N.F. acknowledges support from the NWO/TTW Project “Symbiotic Machines for Space Exploration” No. 14595. V.M.F acknowledges support from the NWO/TTW Veni Project “Hacking Photosynthesis: A Biosensor for Pollutants” No. 16866. M.R.J. acknowledges support from the BrisSynBio Synthetic Biology Research Centre at the University of Bristol (BB/L01386X/1) funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council of the UK. Molecular graphics were performed with the UCSF Chimera package. Chimera is developed by the Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization, and Informatics at the University of California, San Francisco (supported by NIGMS P41-GM103311). Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.

Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge Sofie Zajíc Klabbers for her scientific contributions to this work. R.N.F. acknowledges support from the NWO/TTW Project “Symbiotic Machines for Space Exploration” No. 14595. V.M.F acknowledges support from the NWO/TTW Veni Project “Hacking Photosynthesis: A Biosensor for Pollutants” No. 16866. M.R.J. acknowledges support from the BrisSynBio Synthetic Biology Research Centre at the University of Bristol (BB/L01386X/1) funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council of the UK. Molecular graphics were performed with the UCSF Chimera package. Chimera is developed by the Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization, and Informatics at the University of California, San Francisco (supported by NIGMS P41‐GM103311). Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Angewandte Chemie International Edition published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy

Research Groups and Themes

Bristol BioDesign Institute

Keywords

synthetic biology

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title = "Sustaining Electron Transfer Pathways Extends Biohybrid Photoelectrode Stability to Years",

abstract = "The exploitation of natural photosynthetic enzymes in semi-artificial devices constitutes an attractive and potentially sustainable route for the conversion of solar energy into electricity and solar fuels. However, the stability of photosynthetic proteins after incorporation in a biohybrid architecture typically limits the operational lifetime of biophotoelectrodes to a few hours. Here, we demonstrate ways to greatly enhance the stability of a mesoporous electrode coated with the RC-LH1 photoprotein from Rhodobacter sphaeroides. By preserving electron transfer pathways, we extended operation under continuous high-light to 33 days, and operation after storage to over two years. Coupled with large photocurrents that reached peak values of 4.6 mA cm -2 , the optimized biophotoelectrode produced a cumulative output of 86 C cm -2 , the largest reported performance to date. Our results demonstrate that the factor limiting stability is the architecture surrounding the photoprotein, and that biohybrid sensors and photovoltaic devices with operational lifetimes of years are feasible.",

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note = "Funding Information: The authors acknowledge Sofie Zaj{\'i}c Klabbers for her scientific contributions to this work. R.N.F. acknowledges support from the NWO/TTW Project “Symbiotic Machines for Space Exploration” No. 14595. V.M.F acknowledges support from the NWO/TTW Veni Project “Hacking Photosynthesis: A Biosensor for Pollutants” No. 16866. M.R.J. acknowledges support from the BrisSynBio Synthetic Biology Research Centre at the University of Bristol (BB/L01386X/1) funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council of the UK. Molecular graphics were performed with the UCSF Chimera package. Chimera is developed by the Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization, and Informatics at the University of California, San Francisco (supported by NIGMS P41-GM103311). Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. Funding Information: The authors acknowledge Sofie Zaj{\'i}c Klabbers for her scientific contributions to this work. R.N.F. acknowledges support from the NWO/TTW Project “Symbiotic Machines for Space Exploration” No. 14595. V.M.F acknowledges support from the NWO/TTW Veni Project “Hacking Photosynthesis: A Biosensor for Pollutants” No. 16866. M.R.J. acknowledges support from the BrisSynBio Synthetic Biology Research Centre at the University of Bristol (BB/L01386X/1) funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council of the UK. Molecular graphics were performed with the UCSF Chimera package. Chimera is developed by the Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization, and Informatics at the University of California, San Francisco (supported by NIGMS P41‐GM103311). Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 The Authors. Angewandte Chemie International Edition published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.",

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N2 - The exploitation of natural photosynthetic enzymes in semi-artificial devices constitutes an attractive and potentially sustainable route for the conversion of solar energy into electricity and solar fuels. However, the stability of photosynthetic proteins after incorporation in a biohybrid architecture typically limits the operational lifetime of biophotoelectrodes to a few hours. Here, we demonstrate ways to greatly enhance the stability of a mesoporous electrode coated with the RC-LH1 photoprotein from Rhodobacter sphaeroides. By preserving electron transfer pathways, we extended operation under continuous high-light to 33 days, and operation after storage to over two years. Coupled with large photocurrents that reached peak values of 4.6 mA cm -2 , the optimized biophotoelectrode produced a cumulative output of 86 C cm -2 , the largest reported performance to date. Our results demonstrate that the factor limiting stability is the architecture surrounding the photoprotein, and that biohybrid sensors and photovoltaic devices with operational lifetimes of years are feasible.

AB - The exploitation of natural photosynthetic enzymes in semi-artificial devices constitutes an attractive and potentially sustainable route for the conversion of solar energy into electricity and solar fuels. However, the stability of photosynthetic proteins after incorporation in a biohybrid architecture typically limits the operational lifetime of biophotoelectrodes to a few hours. Here, we demonstrate ways to greatly enhance the stability of a mesoporous electrode coated with the RC-LH1 photoprotein from Rhodobacter sphaeroides. By preserving electron transfer pathways, we extended operation under continuous high-light to 33 days, and operation after storage to over two years. Coupled with large photocurrents that reached peak values of 4.6 mA cm -2 , the optimized biophotoelectrode produced a cumulative output of 86 C cm -2 , the largest reported performance to date. Our results demonstrate that the factor limiting stability is the architecture surrounding the photoprotein, and that biohybrid sensors and photovoltaic devices with operational lifetimes of years are feasible.

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M3 - Article (Academic Journal)

C2 - 35302697

SN - 1433-7851

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JO - Angewandte Chemie - International Edition

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M1 - e202201148

ER -

Sustaining Electron Transfer Pathways Extends Biohybrid Photoelectrode Stability to Years

Abstract

Bibliographical note

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