Hydrogen Evolution from Biological Protein Photosystem I and Semiconductor BiVO4 Driven by Z-Schematic Electron Transfer

Natural photosynthesis utilizes two proteins, photosystem I and photosystem II, to efficiently oxidize water and reduce NADP+ to NADPH. Artificial photosynthesis which mimics this process achieve water splitting through a two-step Z-schematic water splitting process using man-made synthetic materials for hydrogen fuel production. In this study, Z-scheme system was achieved from the hybrid materials which composed of hydrogen production part as photosystem I protein and water oxidizing part as semiconductor BiVO4. Utilizing photosystem I as the hydrogen evolving part overcomes the problems of existing hydrogen evolving p-type semiconductors such as water instability, expensive cost, few available choices and poor red light (>600 nm) absorbance. Some problems of photosystem II, oxygen evolving part of natural photosynthesis, such as demanding isolation process and D1 photo-damage can also be solved by utilizing BiVO4 as the oxygen evolving part. Preceding research has not suggested any protein-inorganic-hybrid Z-scheme composed of both materials from natural photosynthesis and artificial photosynthesis. In this study, to realize this Z-schematic electron transfer, diffusion step of electron carrier, which usually degrades natural photosynthesis efficiency, was eliminated. Instead, BiVO4 and Pt-photosystem I were all linked together by the mediator gold. Synthesized all-solid-state hybrid materials show enhanced hydrogen evolution ability directly from water when illuminated with visible light.