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Updated: Jul 17, 2025

A Technical Guide for Performing Spectroscopic Measurements on Metal-Organic Frameworks
Published on: April 28, 2023
Enhancing photosynthetic CO2 fixation by assembling metal-organic frameworks on Chlorella pyrenoidosa
Dingyi Li1, Hong Dong2, Xupeng Cao2,3
1School of Materials Science and Engineering, National Institute for Advanced Materials, Nankai University, Tianjin, China.
Abstract:
The CO2 concentration at ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) is crucial to improve photosynthetic efficiency for biomass yield. However, how to concentrate and transport atmospheric CO2 towards the Rubisco carboxylation is a big challenge. Herein, we report the self-assembly of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) on the surface of the green alga Chlorella pyrenoidosa that can greatly enhance the photosynthetic carbon fixation. The chemical CO2 concentrating approach improves the apparent photo conversion efficiency to about 1.9 folds, which is up to 9.8% in ambient air from an intrinsic 5.1%. We find that the efficient carbon fixation lies in the conversion of the captured CO2 to the transportable HCO3- species at bio-organic interface. This work demonstrates a chemical approach of concentrating atmospheric CO2 for enhancing biomass yield of photosynthesis.
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