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Updated: Jun 12, 2025

Purification of Active Photosystem I-Light Harvesting Complex I from Plant Tissues
Published on: February 3, 2023
Artificial Photosynthetic Cell with Molecular Biomimetic Thylakoid
Enbo Zhou1, Shichen Yan2, Xiang Zhang2,3
1Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, 350002, Fujian, P. R. China.
Abstract:
The construction of solar-to-chemical conversion system by mimicking the photosynthetic network of the chloroplast holds great promise on efficient solar energy utilization. We developed an artificial photosynthetic cell (APC) based on molecular biomimetic thylakoid (CoTPP-FePy) to split water into hydrogen and oxygen (H2 and O2) at low driving voltage (1.1 V) and neutral condition (pH≈7). The CoTPP-FePy can emulate the light reaction in thylakoids to produce O2 by coupling light harvesting, photocatalysis, and electron/energy storage (FeIII/FeII-Py). Subsequently, a membrane electrode assembly (MEA) were employed to simulate the dark reaction, wherein the proton, electron and energy generated by the light reaction can drive the H2 producing process. By a temporally and spatially coupling of the light and dark reactions, the resulting APC achieved a solar conversion efficiency of 3.1 %, exceeding that of natural photosynthetic systems and demonstrating the potential of artificial photosynthesis.
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