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Updated: Jul 24, 2025

Versatile CO2 Transformations into Complex Products: A One-pot Two-step Strategy
Published on: November 9, 2019
Light-driven Transformation of Carbon Monoxide into Hydrocarbons using CdS@ZnS : VFe Protein Biohybrids
Yuchen Ding1, Chi Chung Lee2, Yilin Hu2
1Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80303, USA.
Abstract:
Enzymatic Fisher-Tropsch (FT) process catalyzed by vanadium (V)-nitrogenase can convert carbon monoxide (CO) to longer-chain hydrocarbons (>C2) under ambient conditions, although this process requires high-cost reducing agent(s) and/or the ATP-dependent reductase as electron and energy sources. Using visible light-activated CdS@ZnS (CZS) core-shell quantum dots (QDs) as alternative reducing equivalent for the catalytic component (VFe protein) of V-nitrogenase, we first report a CZS : VFe biohybrid system that enables effective photo-enzymatic C-C coupling reactions, hydrogenating CO into hydrocarbon fuels (up to C4) that can be hardly achieved with conventional inorganic photocatalysts. Surface ligand engineering optimizes molecular and opto-electronic coupling between QDs and the VFe protein, realizing high efficiency (internal quantum yield >56 %), ATP-independent, photon-to-fuel production, achieving an electron turnover number of >900, that is 72 % compared to the natural ATP-coupled transformation of CO into hydrocarbons by V-nitrogenase. The selectivity of products can be controlled by irradiation conditions, with higher photon flux favoring (longer-chain) hydrocarbon generation. The CZS : VFe biohybrids not only can find applications in industrial CO removal for high-value-added chemical production by using the cheap, renewable solar energy, but also will inspire related research interests in understanding the molecular and electronic processes in photo-biocatalytic systems.
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