Bioinspired construction of light-harvesting antenna via hierarchically co-assembling approach

Biomimetic construction of artificial photosystem capable of converting light energy to chemical energy is a promising strategy in solving the increasing serious energy and environmental problems. Herein, we present a new strategy to construct light-harvesting antenna via hierarchical co-assembly of short-peptide and porphyrin and subsequent self-metallization process. The hierarchically organized antenna exhibits both excellent photocatalytic performance and remarkable sustainability under strong light irradiation (35000 lx) and extraordinary sensitivity to weak light (700 lx). In such cases, light energy can be converted into chemical energy and stored in the energy-storage molecules (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, NADH) even under weak light irradiation. This provides a promising step towards an artificial photosystem that can utilize weak light. Moreover, the structures and properties of the antenna are dependent on the competition of short-peptide self-assembling and co-assembling with porphyrin molecules and can be regulated by their molar ratio. This provides new insights into the design and construction of light-harvesting antennas with integrated functionality via precise control of pigments aggregation and coupling of different functional units.