Semiconductor-metal nanoparticle hybrids with natural and artificial proton pump for hydrogen production

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10220378-B2
Application number	US-201715611674-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 1, 2017
Priority date	Jun 1, 2017
Publication date	Mar 5, 2019
Grant date	Mar 5, 2019

Abstract

Aspects of the disclosure relate to an efficient entirely man-made nanobio hybrid fabricated through cell-free expression of transmembrane proton pump followed by assembly of the synthetic protein architecture with semiconductor nanoparticles for photocatalytic H2 evolution. The system produces H2 at a turnover rate of 240 μmol of H2 (μmol protein)−1 h−1 under green and 17.74 mmol of H2 (μmol protein)−1 h−1 under white light at ambient conditions, in water at neutral pH with methanol as a sacrificial electron donor. Robsutness and flexibility of this approach allows for systemic manipulation at nanoparticle-bio interface toward directed evolution of energy materials and devices.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A photocatalyst comprising a synthetically produced opsin disposed in an artificial purple membrane non-covalently coupled to a semiconductor nanocluster.

2. The photocatalyst of claim 1 , wherein the synthetically produced opsin is produced in a cell-free system.

3. The photocatalyst of claim 1 , wherein the synthetically produced opsin is a rhodopsin capable of the light-driven translocation of ions across the artificial purple membrane.

4. The photocatalyst of claim 3 , wherein the synthetically produced opsin is bacteriorhodopsin.

5. The photocatalyst of claim 1 , wherein the semiconductor is selected from the group of: Si, SiC, GaAs, GaInP, GaN, CdS, CdSe, TiO 2 , VO 2 , ZrO 2 , Fe 3 O 4 , Fe 2 O 3 , MnO 2 , NiO, ZnO, Bi 2 O 3 and CuO.

6. The photocatalyst of claim 5 , wherein the semiconductor is TiO 2 .

7. The photocatalyst of claim 1 , further comprising a co-catalyst.

8. The photocatalyst of claim 7 , wherein the co-catalyst is selected from the group of: Pt, Pd, Au, Ag, and composites of thereof.

9. The photocatalyst of claim 8 , wherein the co-catalyst is Pt.

10. The photocatalyst of claim 7 , wherein the co-catalyst is dotted on the semiconductor nanocluster.

11. The photocatalyst of claim 1 , wherein the photocatalyst is active in white light and neutral pH.

12. A fuel cell comprising:
a photocatalyst comprising a synthetically produced opsin disposed in an artificial purple membrane non-covalently coupled to a semiconductor nanocluster.

13. The fuel cell of claim 12 , wherein the photocatalyst is provided in an aqueous slurry.

14. A method of producing hydrogen, comprising photocatalytically splitting water using the photocatalyst of claim 1 .

15. The photocatalyst of claim 1 , wherein the semiconductor is a metal oxide.

Assignees

• Uchicago Argonne Llc

Inventors

• Rozhkova Elena A
• Wang Peng
• Schaller Richard D
• Dimitrijevic Nada M
• Rajh Tijana
• Balasubramanian Shankar G

Classifications

• B01J23/42

  Platinum · CPC title

• C01B3/042

  Decomposition of water (by electrolysis of water C25B1/04) · CPC title

• C12N11/14

  Enzymes or microbial cells immobilised on or in an inorganic carrier · CPC title

• C12P3/00

  Preparation of elements or inorganic compounds except carbon dioxide {(recovery of carbon dioxides as by-products C12F3/02)} · CPC title

• H01M4/9008

  Organic or organo-metallic compounds · CPC title