Interfacing Photosynthetic Membrane Protein with Mesoporous WO3 Photoelectrode for Solar Water Oxidation

Photosynthetic biocatalysts are emerging as a new class of materials, with their sophisticated and intricate structure, which promise improved remarkable quantum efficiency compared to conventional inorganic materials in artificial photosynthesis. To break the limitation of efficiency, the construction of bioconjugated photo-electrochemical conversion devices has garnered substantial interest and stood at the frontier of the multidisciplinary research between biology and chemistry. Herein, a biohybrid photoanode of a photosynthetic membrane protein (Photosystem II (PS II)), extracted from fresh spinach entrapped on mesoporous WO3 film, is fabricated on fluorine-doped tin oxide. The PS II membrane proteins are observed to communicate with the WO3 electrode in the absence of any soluble redox mediators and sacrificial reagents under the visible light of the solar spectrum, even to 700 nm. The biohybrid electrode undergoes electron transfer and generates a significantly enhanced photocurrent compared to previously reported PS II-based photoanodes with carbon nanostructures or other semiconductor substrates for solar water oxidation. The maximum incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency reaches 15.24% at 400 nm in the visible light region. This work provides some insights and possibilities into the efficient assembly of a future solar energy conversion system based on visible-light-responsive semiconductors and photosynthetic proteins.